Before: Kingdom Hearts
by Anonymaton
Summary: As he is returning from his journey to the Sleeping Worlds, Sora is dragged through a portal into a strange world, steeped in shadow. As he searches for a way to escape this dark world, he uncovers secrets from an age long since lost; secrets about Light, Darkness, magic and the history of Kingdom Hearts and the X-Blade themselves...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, and welcome to the new story: Kingdom Hearts: Before Time! **

**Creativity: Ooh, it's gonna be good…**

**So, while I really like how my sampling went, I think that for the direction my story is gonna take, it needs to start a little bit differently. Thankfully we didn't get too far in to the sampling so as to give the whole game away, but we'll come back to that later. **

**For now, yeah! We're back with our new story! We'll be trying out a new update schedule for this one, updating twice a week instead of once. Our new update schedule will be Tuesdays and Saturdays. Also, and I'm serious about it this time, the chapters are going to be shorter. This is for two reasons. Number one, the new upload schedule. Number 2, so I don't burn myself out of the story. As of this writing, we're about a quarter of the way through the grand finale for A Very Bad Idea, though this will probably publish at a MUCH later date. Especially with the double update schedule. **

**Right now, we're gonna try to emulate the chapter structure for A Very Bad Idea, especially since eight weeks of uploads before taking a sabbatical sounds better than sixteen. **

**Creativity: Are we about done, I think the readers are getting impatient. **

**Author: Yeah, I think we're about done. Let us proudly present chapter 1 of Kingdom Hearts: Before Time!**

* * *

_Thunder clapped in the distance as a figure draped in a black cloak staggered down a dirt road. Mud caked their body as they kept stumbling one step further. A thin, straight blade, also caked in dirt dragged through the mud, limply held in one hand. The figure took a few more steps before collapsing forward into the mud road, their last moments of vision being blurry shapes approaching them…_

* * *

Sora hurtled through the passage out of the Sleeping Worlds. His 'stuff' was taken care of, and now it was time to return to Yen Sid for whatever the next step of his training was. However, as he was reaching the exit, he saw something ahead. It was glowing an eerie purple color. He readied Kingdom Key just in case, but soon found that the purple glow was being emitted by a strange black stone with a strange symbol carved on it. It appeared to be a V with two lines on each side, parallel to the V lines. On the two lines closest to the V were small inward notches. There was also two 'eyebrows' above and below the lines. He hesitantly reached out to the stone which seemed harmless enough. However, the moment it touched his palm, purple and black energy erupted from the stone, gathering around Sora! He swung Kingdom Key, trying to free himself, but found himself completely wrapped in the darkness.

The next thing he knew, he was hurtling down a purple and black tunnel of some sort!

"AAHHH! WHY CAN'T I EVER HAVE A NORMAL TRIP TO OTHER WORLDS?!" Sora cried out as he tumbled down this strange tunnel. After what felt like hours, he saw the tunnel appearing to end. The was a bright purple flash and he was thrown out of the tunnel, through the air and crashing face first on a dark, stone ground.

"Ow... Note to self. Gotta get some armor or padding."

Sora pushed himself up to get a good look at his surroundings. At first glance, he appeared to be in the realm of darkness. However, there were some easily noticed differences. For one, there was just as much purple as there was black. Most of the ground was black with purple light here and there. The sky was a slowly shifting black and purple as well. Then a bright purple flash came from behind Sora. He looked to see the stone that had brought him here floated down to him at eye level. He reached for it, only for it to sprout two purple wings made of purple energy! It flew around his head a few times before flying off towards a rocky outcropping. Then it stopped, seemingly waiting for him.

"Guess I should follow it. Maybe it'll show me the way out." Sora mused as he started following the stone. As he reached the outcropping, he stopped.

Before him was a massive cluster of floating islands, all made of purple and black rock, with what looked like walkways marked with a quartz-like sand. The stone bobbed a few times before flying down a pathway.

"Hey, wait up!" Sora cried out as he chased after the stone. It sped along until it reached a clearing of sorts. Sora took a moment to catch his breath before taking a look around. There wasn't much to the clearing. A few rock outcroppings, a small purple stream, nothing out of line with the world. Then he noticed something that didn't feel normal. In the middle of the clearing was a massive, black obelisk. The material was glossy, almost like glass. As Sora looked closer, he noticed that there were glyphs of some kind, carved into the obelisk.

"Huh. Wonder what they mean…" Sora wondered aloud before he felt Kingdom Key's familiar weight in his hand. He looked down at the keyblade, confused. Then he looked at the obelisk.

"Am I supposed to…" Sora wondered before cautiously lifting the keyblade up to point it at the obelisk. Light began to shine from the teeth of the key, and a beam shot from the tip, striking the obelisk! The glyphs on the obelisk began to glow purple, which continued to glow brighter and brighter until Sora covered his eyes to shield himself from the brightness! As the light faded, Sora could see that the obelisk had vanished into thin air. Additionally, he felt something was… different. He wasn't sure what, but it was there.

Suddenly, he felt a great pain in his skull! Sora clutched his forehead and yelled in surprise and pain before everything went black.

* * *

"Is he awake?"

"Not yet, but soon. He stirred a few times. It seems the potion has done its work."

"Where did he get that sword? Seems a bit too ornamental for a random kid to have."

"Think he stole it? Seems like the most likely explanation."

"And who has purple eyes? Never seen anything remotely like it."

"We can ask about that when he wakes up. Should be soon."

Ryo's eyelids fluttered a bit as he slowly came to. He could hear voices not too far away. He shifted a bit, fighting against the weight of his own limbs. Eventually, he managed to get one of his arms out from under the blanket draped over his body and took a look at it. A few bandages here or there, but overall, nothing serious. He was lying on bedding that was laid out on the floor of a small room. There appeared to be a sliding door, separating this small room from the others.

_How did I get here?_ He wondered. Then it all came roaring back.

The storm, the soldiers, then the ambush. He'd managed to go largely unnoticed and managed to seize a sword before running away as fast as he could. It almost felt like a bad dream. Most of the last few days had.

Ryo was a boy around fifteen years of age. He had purple eyes, black hair that hovered just above shoulder height and pale skin.

Ryo lifted his bedding to look down at his body. Once again, only a few bandages here or there, but nothing injured too majorly. He looked around, searching for what precious few belongings he had. He could see the sword he'd taken leaning against the far wall, as well as his clothes (all gray and black), which looked to have been cleaned of all the mud that had caked onto them.

He slowly forced himself to sit up then looked down at his right palm. His eyes narrowed as he began concentrating, staring intently at his palm. Small purple sparks began to weakly dance across his palm. A couple beads of sweat began dripping down his forehead as he grit his teeth, trying with everything he had. The sparks grew slightly more numerous, but the strain was too much, and Ryo collapsed backward onto his elbows, gasping for breath.

Apparently, this made enough noise whoever was in the next room to take notice that he was awake. A man of a hefty build entered the room after pulling the sliding door aside. He was dressed in a cotton shirt and brown, sleeveless tunic. He had tanned, weather-beaten skin and brown hair.

"Woah there, kid. Don't strain anything." The man admonished as he helped Ryo lie down again. As Ryo caught his breath, he looked at his palm and felt his eyes prickle a bit. It was there. He could still feel it. And yet, it felt so far away. And it hurt. It hurt so much.

* * *

_Three days later…_

Ryo stumbled a bit as he began standing up. Three days of nothing but bedrest had not been kind to his coordination. Once his muscles had managed to remember how they were supposed to work, he pulled on the clothes that had been laid out for him: standard cotton undershirt, trousers and brown tunic. He picked up the straight sword and slipped it into the sheath that local smith had made for the weapon before strapping it to his back. It felt awkward to put it there, but it still felt more natural than belting it to his side.

As he stepped out of the small room he'd been confined to for three days, he steeled himself for the onslaught of questions that would surely follow. Sure enough, the man whose home this was, Veruk was his name, was seated at a table with a cup of... something. Ryo didn't know what it was, but it probably wasn't water.

"Good to see you up, kid. Though, now that you're up I think it's time we talked." Veruk stated. Ryo pursed his lips as he took a seat at the table before examining the space.

It was rather large and completely open, with a kitchen unit off to one side. There was a room off to the side of the kitchen and two other rooms opposite said kitchen. The whole place was sparsely decorated, with only two small portraits. One of Veruk and a woman that Ryo didn't recognize, and one of a girl who looked to be around his age.

"Look, I get that this might be hard for you to talk about, but it still needs to be talked about. Kids your age don't just randomly show up in the middle of a summer storm with swords. We sent a search party out after we found you, only to find one hell of a mess about two hours' ride from where we found you." Veruk stated. Ryo couldn't meet the man's gaze, only staring at the table.

"I don't believe you helped kill those soldiers, but you either discovered the massacre and looted that sword from it, which is unlikely for a number of reasons, or you took the sword while running away from said massacre. If there's danger anywhere near the village, the village needs to know about it." Veruk concluded. Ryo's stare didn't break from the table as he took a deep breath.

"I was travelling along the road, trying to find shelter of some kind. I knew the storm was approaching, so I picked up the pace, trying to get here sooner." Ryo started, only to be interrupted.

"Without any travelling gear?" Veruk inquired. Ryo shook his head.

"No. Someone stole my pack during the night. I'm just lucky they didn't kill me as well." He replied. Veruk frowned.

"It's dangerous to travel alone." He admonished. Ryo didn't respond. Instead, he pressed forward with his story.

"As I was travelling, a group of soldiers happened across me. They were suspicious of me to start with, but then... something attacked us. I'm not sure what. They looked like ordinary people, but they… felt different. I'm not sure how to describe them." Ryo continued. The scene was vivid in his head…

"_Find the shard! The Dread King demands it!"_

"Did you here a name at all? See any distinguishing marks on the attackers?" Veruk probed, snapping Ryo out of his recollection.

"They mentioned someone… They called them 'the Dread King'." Ryo shared, noticing Veruk tensed ever so slightly.

"Does that mean anything to you?" Ryo asked. Veruk shook his head.

"Only rumors and hearsay. There's a fortress situated in the middle of the Dead Fields that apparently is home to an evil spirit that calls itself the Dread King. Honestly, it's likely that it's just a story. No one goes to the Dead Fields. It isn't a pleasant place, as suggested by the name." Veruk muttered. Ryo could tell he was lying about that. It took one to know one, after all. Ryo suspected that Veruk suspected him as well, though neither was calling the other out.

"Anyway, please continue." Veruk prompted. Ryo nodded.

"Right. When the attack started, I grabbed a sword from the nearest body and ran as fast as I could to get away. I managed to get away relatively unscathed before exhaustion got the better of me. That's when you found me." Ryo concluded. Veruk leaned back in his chair.

"Well, now that you're back on your feet, what are you going to do?" Veruk asked. Ryo slumped.

"I don't know. I have no supplies to keep travelling and I don't even know where I would go. What a joke…" Ryo muttered under his breath before glaring angrily at his palm. Veruk leaned forward, lacing his fingers together.

"Well, if you can't keep travelling, you can work in the village to earn enough munny and supplies to keep travelling if you wish. If not, then you earn keep to stay here." Veruk offered. Ryo looked up in surprise.

"You're… you're offering me a place to stay?" Ryo asked in surprise. Veruk nodded.

"Do you accept?" He asked. Ryo nodded before slowly rising to his feet.

"When and where should I start?"

* * *

Sora groaned as his eyes cracked open. He slowly climbed to his feet, rubbing his head.

"What was that? And, who was I seeing? I've never seen someone like that before…" Sora muttered before looking around. The guide stone was fluttering around in orbit around him, waiting for him to recover.

"That person must have something to do with this place. But, what was that obelisk for? And why did the keyblade react the way it did?" Sora wondered aloud before the guide stone flashed a few times.

The stone flew up to Sora, then zipped down another pathway, pausing as it got a certain distance away.

"Hey, wait up!" Sora called as he hurried after it! It sped along, tracing a pathway across the islands.

"Man, I hope the others don't worry about me being gone so long…" Sora muttered as he kept running after the stone. Somehow, he had the feeling that this detour would take a while.

* * *

**And here's the first chapter done! Like I said, I'm probably going to be doing generally shorter chapters, what with that new release schedule and not wanting myself to undergo Burnout supreme.**

**Creativity: No kidding. Man, was everyone sick of Idea by the end.**

**Author: Honestly, the project is shaping up to be bigger than I initially thought. I originally planned for it to be a two 'season' thing, though it looks like it's gonna be another three 'season' affair. Honestly, I think that might be for the best, so long as I can trim it down a bit to not write multiple chapters of 5K words. It may be working out for Limit Breaker, but Limit Breaker is a bit of a special case, since it's joined Resurgence as a 'work on it when I want to' story.**

**Also, Ryo's physical design hasn't changed. His clothing has, but he'll get back to the original outfit eventually. Plus, a small wardrobe change next chapter.**

**I don't think there's anything else I want to mention… Oh, right! Discord server! I have a Discord server for all of my more recent stories, as well as general chat. The current code is here: ****5RRcGwh**  
**I hope to see you in chat! **

**I think that about covers everything! Like I said, I'll be publishing twice a week for this story, I hope you all enjoy, and I'll see ya again on Saturday! Have a good week!**


	2. Chapter 2

**And here we are, jumping straight into chapter 2 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! Honestly, not much to say right now, so I'll just jump straight into responding to reviews!**

**theCrankyWriter: Wow... Just... Thanks. Really, I mean it. Hope you continue to enjoy my work.**

**Well, now that we've taken care of that, what else did we want to talk about?**

**Creativity: Not much, I don't think.**

**Author: Yeah, that seems about right. Oh, Discord server! Here's the latest passcode: ****5RRcGwh**

**Not much else to talk about today. Let's just jump straight into chapter 2!**

* * *

" It feels like this place goes on forever…"

Sora had been following the flying guide stone for what felt like hours. Where it was leading him to, Sora hadn't a clue. Everywhere looked practically the same. Plus, it didn't help that a black fog had rolled in and was obscuring many of the islands from sight. It had happened not long after Sora had awakened from his 'episode' after unlocking the strange obelisk.

Suddenly, the guide stone flashed a few times and accelerated forward, heading around a large rock formation.

"Hey, wait for me!" Sora called after it before giving chase! He rounded the corner and felt surprise, followed by half-hearted dread. Another obelisk stood before him.

However, something was different this time. As he peered closer at it, he realized that he could understand some of the glyphs somehow.

"This was all gibberish before. Why can I read it now?" Sora wondered before Kingdom Key materialized in his right hand. Sora groaned and walked a short distance away before firing the beam from the tip of the keyblade. Just as before, the obelisk began to glow brightly, forcing Sora to shield his eyes. Then the purple light was gone, as was the obelisk. Sora took a few steps forward before he felt the pain in his head return! It felt less intense this time, but it still hurt plenty.

"I've decided I hate this world…" Sora ground out as his vision blurred and he passed out.

* * *

Ryo yawned as he rolled out of bed, blinking blearily at the sunlight drifting through the window in his room. Rubbing the sand out of his eyes, Ryo walked over to the small chest where he had laid out his clothes for the day; a white cotton shirt, black sleeveless tunic, cotton pants and black boots.

After pulling them on, he exited the room and found Veruk making breakfast; a simple bowl of ground grains, mixed with hot water. After finishing breakfast, Ryo went back to his room to grab a few things for the day. The room was sparsely decorated, containing only one small chest containing spare clothes and a pouch of munny that he was continuously building up. He was up to about 15000 now, though a good portion of it would be spent on purchasing what supplies he could for when he eventually began journeying again. Though, 'eventually' was losing more and more teeth by the day.

Ryo had come to like living in the village and was feeling less and less inclined to resume travelling by the day. He'd met good people here and made good friends. He'd built a life in this village over the last two years. He was sixteen years old now and couldn't imagine what else he'd do with his life now. Especially since… Well, it wasn't good to dwell on that.

A few days into his extended stay in the village, named Woodfell, he'd learned that Veruk was an accomplished martial artist who shared his knowledge of the art with students from the village. In fact, he was currently in the process of constructing his own dojo. The village head was particularly excited by this, almost more so than Veruk, believing that the dojo would attract more people to the town, leading to an uptake in revenue. Ryo wasn't sure how the economics worked, so he just nodded and smiled whenever the man brought it up.

The only one who could compete with the headman for enthusiasm was Veruk's daughter, Veris. She was the girl who's portrait was hung in Veruk's home. Veris was about Ryo's age and was an avid student of her father's. She had short, platinum-blonde hair, green eyes and a tanned complexion. She wore white cotton pants and undershirt underneath a red tunic with sleeves down to just above her elbows, black gloves and boots. She was a bit on the short side, though it was sometimes difficult to notice.

Veris had a friendly, welcoming personality that Veruk claimed was from her mother, though Ryo believed at least some of it had come from Veruk. Veruk didn't talk about Veris' mother very often, though he occasionally dropped the occasional detail. Apparently, when Veruk had spent some time travelling as part of his training, he'd met Veris' mother when she had been giving a ribbon dancing performance. Afterwards, they'd begun travelling together and the rest was history. Ryo had the sneaking suspicion that parts of that story had been left out, but it wasn't his place to press for details. He'd learnt that particular bit from Veris herself, when he asked her why she was practicing ribbon dancing and he'd accidentally happened upon her mid-practice.

They'd become fast friends and through her, Ryo had become good friends with several other village youth. Of note were Garren and Barkos.

Garren was big for his age, standing 6 feet even. He had shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes and typically wore sleeveless clothes that showed off his muscled arms. His father was the local lumberjack and Garren typically helped with moving felled trees or distributing lumber to the village. Ryo found him to be a bit loud and boastful when they first met but come to realize that it wasn't so much self-centeredness that this originated from, so much as it was enthusiasm. Ryo had more than once caught sight of Garren swinging branches in the woods as though they were swords, though he was respectful enough to keep these occurrences to himself.

Barkos was almost the exact opposite of Garren. He was short and lean, standing about five feet, two inches tall, had short brown hair and brown eyes, and was easily the most intelligent among his peers. Barkos typically wore cotton pants and shirts under a forest green, long-sleeve tunic. Despite his appearance, Barkos wasn't physically weak. He was apprenticing under the village's best hunter and was already a fair hand with a bow. What spare time he had however, was spent reading almost any book her could get his hands on. It was also ill-advised to interrupt him when he was in-depth in one of his reading sessions, as Ryo had discovered when he accidentally found himself as the third person to interrupt him within the span of ten minutes and had a botany volume thrown at his head for his trouble.

Veris had introduced him to those two a few days after he started exploring the village in earnest, since his first days of work had mostly consisted of running errands for the villagers, though he'd swiftly transitioned into using the job board that had been put up outside the village head's house. Villagers that needed tasks done would put them on the board, as well as a reward. These could range from helping to move heavy objects, collecting wood and other such trivial tasks. In fact, it was at Barkos' suggestion that Ryo start using the job board to build funds for his journey. Since then, Ryo's days were spent doing as many jobs from the board as he could, occasionally working with another village youth if the job recommended more than one person, before spending time with his friends.

As he approached the board for the day, he saw there were several requests for firewood delivery, all in relatively close proximity.

"Easy enough." Ryo muttered as he took the listings and went about the day of work. It took more than a few hours to collect all the firewood and get it all to the houses, with a lunch break in the middle of it all, but he'd gotten it all accomplished by the end of the day and collected the rewards, a cool 750 munny. He deposited 100 of it into the savings for his journey and put the rest in his every-day munny pouch. He didn't stay at Veruk's home for free, since he'd turned fifteen, and he had to attend to his own needs, such as clothes and the like.

After taking a long draught of water, Ryo started heading back to Veruk's for dinner. However, that journey was slightly impeded when he felt an arm slung around his shoulder. He didn't even need to look up to know who it was.

"How was work today, Garren?" Ryo asked as he picked a splinter that was bugging him out of his finger.

"Eh, not too difficult. It's pretty cathartic, splitting logs." Garren replied with a grin on his face.

"So, is there a reason you're steering me away from Veruk's or…" Ryo started, but Garren was quick to clarify.

"Oh, Veris asked me to invite you to Bort's for dinner tonight. Barkos and me are both already going and Veris reminded us to invite you." Garren explained.

"Didn't Klaus decide that kids our age aren't allowed in anymore after that freak mutton and antler incident?" Ryo asked. Garren just smiled.

"Relax, I'm pretty sure that's just keeping us away from the liquor. As long as we're there for just food, we'll be fine." Garren assured. Ryo was skeptical, but the temptation of eating at Bort's was too great.

Bort's was probably the only original structure left from founding age of Woodfell. It was a well-maintained tavern that still bared the original owner's name. Now, that wasn't to say that the place hadn't changed in all those years. There'd been enough additions, repairs and updates to the place that there probably wasn't much of the original structure left, save a massive dead tree trunk that the structure had been built around. It had been lacquered and preserved so as to continue being the centerpiece for the tavern. Nowadays, the place was run by a man named Klaus, a heavyset man that was starting to go bald. Aside from owning the place, he also served as the bartender. Klaus was generally a very boisterous, enthusiastic person, though he was also very strict about the rules of his establishment, and failure to comply with those rules never ended well.

As they approached, Ryo could see both Veris and Barkos waiting outside, idly chatting. Garren waved them down and they jogged over to greet them.

"Thank goodness you're both here! The smell was starting to get the better of us." Veris cried dramatically. Barkos rolled his eyes.

"You, maybe. You haven't stopped talking about going to Bort's ever since you overheard that he was going to try repealing that ban he put in place, at least for a while." Barkos replied dryly. Ryo looked up at Garren before nudging him to remove his arm from Ryo's shoulder.

"Yeah, definitely sounds like it was just to keep those not of age away from the bar." Ryo replied sarcastically before picking out another splinter.

"Remind me to get some gloves for the next time I move logs. These one's seemed exceptionally splintery today." He told them as he flicked the offending piece of wood away. The group stepped into the tavern and started looking around, searching for an open table. They lucked out and ended up finding a corner booth before anyone else could lay claim to it. Having settled into their seats, the group started chatting while they waited for someone to take their order.

"So, how much munny do you have saved up now? I mean, you have two years worth of the stuff now, to the day actually." Barkos asked Ryo, who looked up in surprise.

"I've got 15000 munny set aside for travelling, but that doesn't count towards my personal funds or the munny I've been keeping for supplies. And wow, it really is two years to the day already…" Ryo responded.

"You thought about where you'll go?" Veris asked. Ryo shook his head in response.

"I haven't thought that far ahead. Honestly, it's getting to the point where I'm wondering if I should leave at all. I have no plan, no destination in mind, no real reason to travel anymore. Until I have a reason, why bother?" He responded.

"I guess that's a fair answer. Still, I'd love to go out there and see the world, maybe see if I can watch a performance in Aznad's Grand hall." Veris mused, her face one of longing. Aznad was a city that was built in entertainment and performance arts. If you intended to make it as a performer of any kind, Aznad was the first place you went to. According to Veruk, Aznad was the city where he'd met Veris' mother.

"Well, I know where I intend to go once I have the finances. There's this great university in Oxos I've wished to study at." Barkos shared. This was something Ryo had heard before, and the city would probably be the first place he'd set as a destination he resumed travelling.

Oxos was the capital city of the land and sported robust trade, great military strength and world-renowned education opportunities. It made sense that Barkos, as studious as he was, would want to go there to study all that he could.

"What would you want to study in particular? I imagine that would be a detail you need to know to apply there." Ryo pointed out. Barkos paused for a minute or two, mulling the question over.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. There's so much knowledge out there and I want to learn as much as I can, but I guess I would have to narrow it down to be accepted into the university. I wonder if they have any books on mystic arts…" Barkos wondered aloud. Ryo paused for a moment, though it went unnoticed by everyone else. He hadn't heard of Barkos' interest in magic before. When had the interest started? He didn't have time to ask when Garren launched into speech.

"One day, I intend to leave this town, learn the art of the blade and return as a legendary swordsman! Tales will be sung of my skill and deeds in all four corners of the world!" He declared. Ryo resisted the urge to laugh a little, as well as add that his occasional sightings of Garren swinging branches in the woods suddenly made more sense. By this point, he knew that Garren's bravado was mainly just to entertain the present company. The boy could be over-confident, but Ryo wouldn't really call him arrogant, mainly because arrogant came across as a more… grating personality trait.

"Oh, I thought of a good topic of research for me, especially since it is tangential to magic! I could study the _tsubasa no aru_!" Barkos exclaimed, though he kept his voice down. The whole group tensed up a bit.

"Keep it down, Barkos! The place just got opened to us again, we don't want you getting us kicked out!" Veris hissed at him. Barkos shrank back a bit.

"Sorry, I just got a bit excited. It's just that I heard rumors from that trade caravan that passed through a few months back that there's been an uptake in archeological investigation into them, and my curiosity was piqued." Barkos explained in a hushed tone. Ryo had gone really quiet at the very mention of the _tsubasa no aru_. His fist clenched under the table and shuddered a few times before he noticed this and forced himself to calm down.

Eventually, someone arrived to take their order and it wasn't long after that their plates arrived. The food was incredible, though there was some longing that they could have ordered some stronger beverages. Still, that did almost nothing to damper the mood, and soon enough they were on their way out with full stomachs. After paying for their meal, they all walked out, bidding each other farewell heading back to their respective homes. As Veris and Ryo approached Veruk's house, Ryo paused.

"You go ahead. I'll come in a few minutes." Ryo told her. Veris looked at him curiously but shrugged and went inside. Ryo walked around the house and into the woods a short distance before making sure that no one else was around. He then looked down at his hands and frowned before concentrating. He could feel the strain, but he pushed through it. Purple sparks began to dance across his hands.

"Come on, come on…" Ryo pleaded as he kept pushing harder, trying desperately to draw the power forth! And yet, as all the times he'd tried over the last two years, it ended in failure. He collapsed to his hands and knees, his face beaded with sweat. He dragged himself to his feet and stumbled over to a tree, leaning on it for stability. After a few minutes, he slammed his fist against it with a resounding thud and let out a barely audible sob of anguish. It was there. It was always there! And yet, it was always out of reach! Why?!

Ryo numbly walked inside and into his room, pulling the door closed. He didn't bother undressing, only taking off his boots and almost collapsing onto his bedding. The pain and sorrow he felt had vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving only a cold numb.

* * *

**I think that's the perfect place to leave it for today! Didn't quite get where we intended to, but I think that's a better place to leave it for this chapter. **

**Creativity: Wow, you aren't even waiting to emotionally torture this guy, are you?**

**Author: Ummm, what do you mean? I do mean stuff to all my protagonists. Need I remind you of the scorpion eating contest?**

**Creativity: Fair point, but still. It's explicitly stated that Garter and Gula have already undergone some bad stuff BEFORE we meet them, and we don't really go super in-depth with the emotional stuff with Grey until a few chapters in. It's mainly just survival, on the run and the occasional anger issues for him.**

**Author: You aren't making a compelling case, here.**

**Creativity: Yeah, I'm really not. Wow, you really are a nasty piece of work, aren't you?**

**Author: Normally I'd use the chair to punish you for that, but I'll save that for after we finish addressing the audience. Then I won't send anyone home traumatised.**

**So yeah, that's our second chapter. Look forward to publishing the next chapter on Tuesday! See ya then!**


	3. Chapter 3

**And a happy Tuesday to you all! It's May 9****th**** 2019 as of this writing, just as a benchmark of how long it took to write this.**

**Creativity: Not that it will mean anything until we start publishing.**

**Author: Quiet, you. **

**Anyway, when I initially started this project, I thought it would only be sixteen chapters of around 2500 words. However, I feel that to really get to the emotional depth I'm targeting for the story, I need to extend that out to twenty chapters, with the word cap being ignored. Honestly, I should have expected this. The idea of a word cap is kinda laughable for me, mainly more of a minimum benchmark I prefer to meet. The reason I tried to stick to it this time was so that I didn't burn out on the story. Though, that'll probably take longer than last time. Especially since I already think I have it figured out as three acts, one per season.**

**Creativity: How exactly… oh… oh that does work out as a clean three acts, doesn't it?**

**Author: I think so. Anyway, not much to talk about, aside from answering reviews.**

**Creativity: And there's no reviews!**

**Author: Alright! What's left? Oh, right! Current Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**And that about covers everything! Now, let us proudly present chapter 3 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

_A figure wrapped in a black cloak sprinted through an open-air hallway before leaping over a stone rail into a grass courtyard. Clutched tightly in their left hand was a black crystal, framed in a purple glow. Pursuing them was a group dressed in different colored cloaks, all clutching different weapons. The figure leapt over another railing onto a balcony, summoning a black and purple, single edged, two-handed broadsword with a knuckle guard, flourishing the blade before swinging it horizontally to launch an arc of purple energy from the blade. Several of the pursuers were forced to stop and defend themselves while others closed in. The figure engaged the pursuers in combat, weaving a deadly web of steel around themselves, but still gave ground before they were knocking down. Through it all though, they refused to loosen their grip on the crystal._

_Suddenly, the crystal began to emit dark energy that wrapped around its holder, funneling into the blade. With a desperate cry, the figure let out a wild slash unleashing a surge of dark energy, causing the air to appear as if it was cracking. Suddenly, the energy turned and wrapped around the figure before bursting outwards, leaving only trace wisps of dark energy that rose from the ground like smoldering embers. _

Ryo's eyes snapped open, darting about his room. The moonlight shone through the window, indicating that it was close to midnight. Ryo sat up, rubbing his forehead in an effort to clear the sweat from his brow. Every nerve in his body was on edge. Recognizing that he wouldn't be able to sleep, Ryo pulled on some clothes and stepped out of his room, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he took a seat at the table.

"_I hadn't had nightmares like that in a little over a year and a half. Why now?" _Ryo thought tiredly before he heard a door slide open. His head turned to see Veris creeping out of her room. She looked concerned and had her arms wrapped around her front, as if chilled.

"Veris? What are you doing up?" Ryo asked quietly, not wanting to wake Veruk. Veris jumped a bit when she heard his voice.

"I could ask the same of you." She responded, equally quiet.

"It was just a nightmare. My nerves are on edge, so I figured getting out of my room for a bit would help." Ryo answered. Veris glanced around, her face set in a frown.

"I thought I heard something outside. It didn't sound like an animal. Honestly, I've felt something was wrong all night." She revealed. Then Ryo heard a twig snap not too far from the front door. Immediately, Ryo stood up and edged back towards his room and stealthily opened the chest in his room, retrieving the sword he had taken from the ambush two years ago. He drew it slowly, thankful that the blade was surprisingly quiet. Grasping the weapon tightly, he slowly edged towards the door, keeping the blade between him and said door.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open and someone charged into the house! Ryo darted forward and swiped at the attacker, landing a blow to their face! The attacker was thrown to the ground, a mask clattering into the corner of the house. Ryo's blood chilled when he saw the mask. Sans the slash across the nose, the mask was the same one that was worn by the ones who ambushed the soldiers two years ago, these servants of 'the Dread King'. It bore no resemblance to a face, only a strange blue sigil. It didn't even appear to have functioning eye or nose holes.

Ryo immediately sank his blade into the man's back before being surprised when a dark blue mist began to rise from the wound. The mist turned into a geyser of dark blue and black energy that vanished almost as quickly as it came! Ryo stumbled back, confused and scared by what had just transpired. Veris looked horrified. Veruk charged into the room not soon after the mist had vanished and looked between the body and Ryo. He hurried over to the body, his eyes widening and his face ashen as soon as he got a good look at the armor and the mask that lay not too far away. He flipped the body over and stumbled backwards. The face underneath was a cold, gray color. The eyes were black, though faint embers of dark blue energy could be seen from them, fading more and more as time passed.

"Ryo grab all of your munny and whatever supplies you have. Veris, get dressed and grab your knife." Veruk immediately commanded. Ryo stared at him for a moment or so with concern before going back to his room to do just that. Then the screaming started.

Dragging his pack over his shoulders, Ryo rushed out the door and looked around in horror. More of those soldiers were busy razing the village to the ground and attacking anyone and everyone within reach of their weapons. Veris emerged from her room and saw the carnage unfolding before her. She looked like she was going to be sick.

Veruk had rushed forward and was engaging the attacking soldiers in combat, using his bare fists to strike them down. Their armor had several structural weaknesses that Veruk was showing great aptitude in exploiting. Noticing that both of them were outside the home, he rushed over to them, his eyes constantly scanning the crowd.

"You both need to run. Get as far away from Woodfell as you can and don't look back." Veruk instructed them. Ryo's eyes widened.

"What about you?! You can't expect us to leave you…" Ryo started before Veruk rounded on him.

"That is EXACTLY what I expect you to do! I expect the two of you to run as fast as you can and avoid the Dread King's forces at all costs!" Veruk thundered at them. Ryo shrank back in shock. Veris was looking at her father in terror.

"Papa, what are you…" She started before Veruk grabbed her hands.

"I will not lose my daughter to that… that monster! Not like…" Veruk started before he choked up and dropped Veris' hands. Ryo noticed a soldier had taken notice of them and was charging them with a spear. He rushed past Veruk and blocked the strike before driving his blade through the soldier's heart, causing the same burst of energy to erupt from the body. Veruk snapped out of his emotional stupor and rounded on the soldiers!

"I need you both to go! Now!" He shouted before leaping to attack the invaders again! Ryo grabbed Veris' shoulder and tugged her towards the village exit. They both took another glance at their caretaker as he fought back against the invaders before making a reluctant beeline for the exit. Veris had drawn her knife and the two managed to make their way to the exit, taking out any invaders that got in their way, only to be stopped by three soldiers, one of which appeared to be the commanding officer. His armor was fancier and his mask was more detailed. He made a sound underneath his mask that indicated he was drawing a deep breath through his nose.

"The smell of blood and fear… It's thick in the air… But there's also the faintest trace of magic…" The commander hissed through the mask. Ryo raised his sword, though one could see the blade quivering in his grasp. The commander made a sound like snickering as he and the two other soldiers started stalking forward. Ryo backed up a bit, fear in his eyes. He raised his blade as Veris mirrored him, slowly backing away. Suddenly, the soldier to Ryo's right that flanked the commander sprouted an arrow in his shoulder! They heard a loud bellow as they saw a large shape charge forward and plunge a woodcutter's axe into the soldier's chest! Ryo immediately recognized Garren as the one wielding the axe and could safely assume it was Barkos with the bow. He immediately seized on the distraction and darted forward, slashing the second soldier down before turning and moving to strike down the commander! Unfortunately, the commander apparently had that title for a reason and swiftly raised his own blade to block. Ryo bared his teeth in a snarl as he pushed back against the blade, but the commander was too strong and just shoved Ryo back before advancing and delivering a vicious downward chop! Ryo rolled to the side just before another arrow suddenly sprouted from the commander's shoulder! The commander stumbled back in surprise and pain, leaving himself open for Ryo to get in a strike on his left leg that caused the commander to drop to one knee. Garren immediately kicked the commander onto his back and brought the axe down as hard as he could, decapitating the man.

Ryo took a few steps back, taking a moment to catch his breath when he noticed a strange glow coming from within the dead commander's armor. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be some sort of stone of some kind, shaped like an egg and a bit larger than his fist. It probably fell out of wherever the commander had been keeping it during the brief battle. Ryo picked it up and turned to the group.

"We need to keep moving." He said. Veris was still looking at the dead body, her face white as a sheet.

"We can't just leave! They need…" Garren started before Ryo cut them off.

"The village is already lost! Veruk told me and Veris to run, so that's what we're going to do! Are you coming with us or not?" Ryo snapped. Garren looked like he had just been slapped in the face. Ryo felt ashamed for his outburst, but now wasn't the time for a debate. As much as he hated it, Veruk was likely laying down his life so they could all escape and he wasn't going to let that sacrifice go to waste.

However, before either Garren or Barkos could respond, the stone in Ryo's hand started to shimmer and glow brighter than before. Ryo covered his eyes as the glow grew more intense. A high-pitched whine began to fill the air as the hairs of the four friends began to stand on end. There was a blinding flash through the burning town, and they vanished into thin air.

* * *

Sora groaned as he came out of the vision again. He rubbed his temples as he slowly climbed to his feet and took a seat on a nearby rock.

"What are these dreams about? Are they like Roxas's memories? No, it doesn't feel the same." Sora muttered as he mulled it over, trying to piece together what he was seeing.

"I guess I'll just have to deal with the pain that comes with them to figure these dreams out." Sora muttered before he noticed the guide stone seemed to be exhibiting impatience. Normally, Sora would have questioned that line of thought, but his time spent with the Kingdom Key had taught him that it was probably best not to question it. Instead, he stood up and started following the guide stone. As he followed it, he noticed they were heading towards what looked like a ravine of some kind. Sure enough, that was exactly where the guide stone was headed, though it did slow down and start hovering a little closer to the walls. By now, Sora had figured out that the stone was trying to show him something, as evidenced by the obelisks, splitting headaches aside.

Sora immediately started examining the walls of the ravine, finding glyphs and images carved into them. It didn't look like the ones on the obelisk, which had been cut with the finesse of a fine jeweler. These one's looked rougher, though still neat and legible. As he peered at the glyphs, he realized he could understand them. Or at least pieces of them.

"Key… Kye… It must be talking about the X-Blade!" Sora exclaimed before examining the carvings more closely.

"The key has been given a name… X-blade… pale imitations of it are being crafted as weapons… True purpose… Fear for the Light… Fear for the Dark…" Sora muttered, only being able to decipher a chunks of the text.

"What does all of it mean? Fear _for _both the Light and Darkness? Why would anyone worry _for_ the Darkness?" Sora wondered aloud as he kept reading.

"The others… gathering… one as many… What does any of that mean?" Sora muttered as he kept working his way through the glyphs. However, the more he read, the more confused he was. It probably wouldn't make any sense until he could read everything. Which probably meant hunting down more of those obelisks, as they seemed to be imparting knowledge of some kind to him.

"This is why I'm glad I don't have to attend school anymore. Learning is physically painful." Sora muttered as he kept making his way through the ravine, deciphering small sections of verses as he went before he came to a blank section of wall. Suspiciously so, in fact. Writing did continue a way's down. But for some reason, it stopped here. Leaving words blank for a large circular area. Sora looked at the area with scrutiny before realizing what he had to do. He summoned Kingdom Key to his hand and aimed it at the circle. A small area in the center of the circle began to glow purple, taking the form of a keyhole. Sora fired the keyblade beam into the keyhole, which caused the circular area to shudder before dissolving to shadow and drifting away, revealing a hidden passageway.

"Please let there not be a snarling dark creature at the end of this tunnel?" Sora muttered as he started trudging down the path, keyblade slung over his shoulder, the guide stone flitting along just ahead of him.

* * *

**And there's chapter 3! Wow, writing is actually going faster than I initially thought! Like I said, probably going to be stretching season 1 out a bit, but with the shorter chapters, that shouldn't be an issue. **

**Creativity: And now we're off to the first world!**

**Author: Indeed! No spoilers on what it is, but it's just a wait until Saturday, so it shouldn't take too long. Also, I'm wondering how much of these Sora sections I should do, hence why I stuck it at the end of this. Let me know so I can make adjustments. Please note that these adjustments will lead to delays, since this is all being pre-written. I'll probably publish a couple of weeks worth of chapters before waiting for feedback on any tweaks that need to be made.**

**Creativity: Should be easy enough, especially if we get ahead of it.**

**Author: Here's hoping. Anyway, I think that's enough for now. See ya on Saturday!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Greetings all! Here we are in chapter 4! I'm pretty tired right now because reasons, but I'm still writing this because I'm most productive as a writer when I'm tired!**

**Creativity: Plus, I get to sneak off easier…**

**Author: …What did you just say?**

**Creativity: …I should start running now, shouldn't I?**

**Author: Indeed you should, though nothing will keep me from docking YOUR pay from MY overtime hours as punishment.**

**Creativity: but… but… fine, I deserve that.**

**Author: Damn right.**

**Anyway, let's address the reviews:**

**And still no reviews, but I did get a lovely PM from one Lishyp. Many thanks. I haven't been getting quite as much feedback on this one as usual, but what feedback I have been getting has been overwhelmingly positive.**

**And that's the reviews done! Now all that's left is to provide the current Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Welp, that covers everything for now! Now, let us proudly present chapter 4 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

Sora knew that he was going to regret following the guide stone down this tunnel eventually. He just would. There was no way that a dark tunnel in a world of Darkness could not possibly end with some sort of snarling monster waiting at the end of it, waiting to rend him asunder. And yet, there was no evidence of that yet. It was kind of spooky, honestly. He'd almost welcome a few Heartless to show up to make this world feel less empty. However, that wasn't the case. So far, it had proven to be devoid of anything approaching life, let alone light. All he had was the guide stone, which he doubted would talk back to him.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed that the tunnel was coming to an end and that he had stepped into a massive cavern. Looking around, it almost looked like a dormant volcano, with the roof of the cavern missing to give a view of the purple/black sky. And of course, situated in the middle of the crater was another obelisk. Sora groaned a bit but knew what he had to do. He raised his keyblade and levelled it at the obelisk before firing the beam into the obelisk. The light came and faded, leaving no trace of the obelisk. Not soon after, the pain in his head returned. Once again, the pain was lesser compared to before. Sora's vision soon faded, and he began to witness another vision.

* * *

Ryo's eyes slowly cracked open as he checked to see if the blinding light had faded. He still winced as his eyes adjusted, but it seemed that the light from the stone had indeed faded. However, that soon became the least of their problems when Ryo realized that they were no longer in the forests of Woodfell. The trees were far too different, and the air was much more humid.

Taking a look around, he saw that everyone else was currently in the midst of picking themselves up and having their eyes adjust. Ryo hurried over to check on everyone. Garren was the first to recover, followed by Veris and then Barkos.

"Anyone have any clue where we are?" Ryo asked as he looked around. Barkos looked around a bit, a ponderous look on his face, though he still looked a little pale from the fight that had taken place before they wound up here.

"My first guess would be a jungle, but I don't know how that's possible. There aren't any jungles near Woodfell." Barkos replied as the others looked around. Ryo then noticed a glow coming from the ground and noticed the stone that they had found in possession of the commander before Garren beheaded him.

"I think it's safe to assume that this had something to do with it." Ryo guessed as he cautiously reached down and picked up the stone.

"What do you think it is?" Veris asked, staring at the stone warily. Ryo frowned.

"This is mostly just rumors and hearsay, but I think this might be a breach stone. It's a magical artifact that has the power to transport people from one place to another. Given what just happened, I think it's a safe guess." Ryo hypothesized. Barkos stroked his chin, thoughtfully.

"Yes, I believe I read about breach stones in an old book on myths and legends. Last I heard, it was a subject of debate as to whether it was merely a method of getting from point A to point B, or if it would take its user somewhere else, to other worlds." Barkos added. Ryo frowned and slipped the stone into his pack.

"We can figure that out later. For now, we need to get moving." Ryo reasoned. Garren laughed a bit hysterically.

"And go where?! We're lost in the middle of a jungle that we got transported to by a magic rock, Woodfell is in flames and the people we just abandoned are probably being slaughtered! What exactly do you expect us to do?! Just find another village and just go one with our lives?!" Garren yelled, disturbing a flock of birds. Ryo just shot a look at him.

"I'm not suggesting that, but we need to do something. I don't believe a jungle is a place we want to spend the night in. Veruk put his life on the line so that we could live, and I don't intend to waste the chance he gave us." Ryo told Garren, though the message was for the whole group. He could see Veris barely holding back tears when he mentioned her father.

So, the group started making their way through the forest, with Garren and Ryo in front of the group, since their weapons were better for hacking brush out of the way when needed. They traveled for about half-an-hour before they finally decided to rest. Luckily, they had come across an animal path that made travel much easier. There were tracks on the path that Barkos was quick to identify as elephant tracks. Thankful that they wouldn't need to navigate the brush anymore, the group continued pressing on until they reached a clearing and stopped for another break.

"How long have we been walking for?" Veris asked aloud.

"I'd say an hour and a half, but the humidity makes it feel longer." Barkos replied. Ryo didn't respond. Instead, he wiped the sweat from his brow and wished he'd had something to wear that would better accommodate the weather. However, he soon became distracted by the feeling that they were being watched.

Not soon after, something rushed into the clearing and leapt into the trees above them, snarling and yowling as it did. That was the least of their problems though. Whatever had fled into the trees above them was being pursued by something that burst into the clearing only a few seconds later. There were two distinct varieties of the creatures. One appeared to be some sort of face or mask that was wrapped in crimson energy, similar in appearance to flame. The masks looked to have been carved from obsidian, both for its color and for how stone-like it appeared, if not for the fact that the jaws were chattering angrily as they floated in the air. they had curved fangs on both their upper and lower jaws, as well as a pair of gnarled horns. The expression on the masks were ones of permanent fury.

The other variety looked like someone carved the skeleton of some sort of bipedal creature out of the same black stone, as they had arms and legs, as well as a head, though the head looked distinctly less mask-like and more like a skull of some kind. Not a human skull though. More akin to that of a reptile of some kind. they stood about two feet tall and had sharp talons, each about an inch and a half in length. they also were wrapped in the same energy as the masks.

Immediately, everyone had their weapons in hand. There was several, agonizingly long moments of complete stillness and silence before one of the creatures shrieked and the battle started. Ryo immediately slashed on twice in an X shape, though the creature didn't die. It didn't even seem that wounded! Ryo grit his teeth and blocked a swipe from the creature before slashing it twice more! This time it died, vanishing in a burst of red energy. He then turned to see one of the masks barreling towards him before an arrow pegged it. He gave a thumb's up over his shoulder to Barkos before attacking another mask. It seemed that the masks were weaker than whatever the bipedal monsters, going down in one or two hits.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Veris feint past one of the bipedal ones and get in a quick succession of strikes, causing the creature to disappear in another flash of red. To his left, Barkos and Garren were working together to even up the odds, with Barkos providing cover fire for Veris and Ryo, while Garren kept the creatures away from Barkos with his axe. It appeared that Barkos' bow was much more effective against the creatures than Ryo or Veris' blades. Garren's axe seemed to be doing similar damage, though the heavier swings made up for it. Soon enough, the clearing was once again monster free. The group took a moment to catch their breath before something dropped to one of the lower branches. Everyone was immediately battle ready, though it wasn't one of the monsters again. They didn't feel that relieved though, as what they were looking at was still very dangerous. They were currently staring down a fully-grown panther. It peered at them, its posture displaying wariness.

"What brings man-cubs this far into the jungle?" The panther muttered under its breath. Ryo's eyes widened.

"You can talk?!" He exclaimed, so surprised that he lowered his guard a bit. The panther's eyes widened as well.

"You can understand me?" It asked back. Everyone looked at each other in surprise.

"I think we just answered each other's questions." Ryo replied cautiously as he slowly lowered his sword, lifting one hand in a show of non-aggression. The panther visibly relaxed a little, though not completely.

"As for what we're doing here, we kind of got here by accident. Our home was attacked, and we used an artifact to escape. We ended up here and we're a bit lost." Ryo quickly explained. The panther eyed them carefully, though it didn't seem distrustful regarding the story.

"I see. I can guide you to the nearest man-village. It is a few days walk from here though, so we'll need to visit someone first." The panther offered. The others looked around at each other.

"I think we should take the offer." Garren immediately voted. Barkos raised an eyebrow.

"You're suggesting we just immediately trust the word of a talking panther that we just met? How do we know this isn't a trick and that we aren't going to end up as dinner? He said he needs to take us somewhere first, and that somewhere could be an ambush." Barkos argued. Veris frowned.

"Honestly, I don't see what other options we have. We're not exactly equipped to find our way out of the jungle on our own, and I doubt that those monsters were the only thing in this jungle that can kill us. We need a guide, or we won't last." She reminded him. Barkos conceded the point, though he clearly wasn't happy about it. Ryo turned back to the panther, who was waiting patiently for them to answer.

"Alright, we'll take you up on your offer." Ryo told the panther, who nodded. The panther lightly hopped off the branch it had been standing on and padded down the path, waiting for the teens to follow. The group did just that, following the panther down the path.

"Say, do you have a name? If we're going to be travelling together, it would be nice to know your name." Veris asked.

"My name is Bagheera." The panther replied.

"Alright, Bagheera. My name is Veris, and this is Ryo, Garren and Barkos." Veris introduced the group. There was some awkward silence as they continued trekking down the pathway, until Ryo finally decided that enough was enough.

"So, where is it that you're taking us before leading us to that village you mentioned?" Ryo inquired, eager to break the silence.

"I have a charge that lives with the jungle's wolf pack. I need to inform them that I will be gone for a few days." Bagheera replied, not bothering to look back at them. Barkos tripped a bit over his own feet the moment Bagheera mentioned the wolves.

"Did you say that you're leading us straight into a wolf pack's territory?!" Barkos exclaimed. Ryo wouldn't lie and say he shared the sentiment, but he managed to keep his expression neutral. Bagheera just huffed.

"No harm will come to you. Akela's pack does not hunt your kind. In fact, they took in a man-cub three years ago. As part of the agreement, I teach him the ways of the jungle. I simply need to inform the pack and Mowgli that I'll be away for a few days to lead you out of the jungle." Bagheera explained.

The group was surprised by Bagheera sharing that a human lived among the wolf pack. It almost sounded like something out of a book.

"How old was this Mowgli when the wolves took him in?" Veris asked.

"He was only an infant when I found him. He was in one of those hollowed logs that your kind use to travel in rivers. He was a strange boy when I found him. He held no fear for me. I knew I could not care for the boy, but I knew that the wolves could care for him. I believe you all can guess the rest." Bagheera answered before stopping.

"We're in the pack's territory now. No doubt, they are aware of us. You must be on your best behaviour." Bagheera warned them. The group nodded and steeled their nerves. Ryo had confidence in Bagheera, though that didn't stop nervousness from creeping in.

Not a few minutes later, the wolves emerged from the foliage. The leader was immediately obvious, as he took the position of highest elevation. Plus, there was an air of command emanating from him.

"Bagheera." The lead wolf greeted the panther.

"Akela." Bagheera greeted back. Ryo remembered that Bagheera had referred to the wolf pack as 'Akela's' pack.

"Is there any particular reason why you've brought these juvenile humans into our territory?" Akela asked. He didn't have a threatening look to him, though he didn't look or sound pleased.

"Forgive the intrusion, Akela. I found them lost in the jungle after they defeated a group of the monsters that have begun threatening the jungle as of late. Their village was destroyed, and they became lost in the jungle. I simply wished to inform you that I would be gone for a few days while guiding them out of the jungle." Bagheera explained. Akela eyed them for a few moments before nodding.

"Very well then. Thank you for coming to explain your absence." Akela replied before turning and walking back into the brush. The rest of the pack followed not long after. Ryo felt the tension in his muscles ease as the predators disappeared. However, he noticed that someone had stuck behind. Peering closer, he could see it was a small, human boy. He had wild black hair and was covered in dirt. He wore nothing but a red loincloth.

Bagheera took notice of the straggler and padded over to him. There seemed to be a short exchange of words before Bagheera nudged him with his nose. The boy reluctantly turned and scampered off into the jungle.

"I'm assuming that was Mowgli?" Ryo asked offhandedly. Bagheera nodded.

"Yes. The boy was curious about you four, questioning why you couldn't just stay in the jungle." Bagheera explained as he started padding off. The group quickly followed.

"What did you tell him?" Veris asked.

"That the jungle wasn't your place. In truth, I fear that one day he will have to return to his own kind. He's been very happy among Akela's pack." Bagheera replied. Ryo seemed to get really quiet after Bagheera's answer.

The group kept travelling for several more hours before eventually come to a stop for the night. The group set up camp for the night while Bagheera found a branch to lounge on.

After a they finished turning what few rations they had into dinner and consuming it, the group doused the fire that Bagheera had been apprehensive about as soon as it had been lit and started trying to get themselves comfortable for the evening. Well, all but one. Ryo climbed up into one of the trees and seated himself down to look at the moon as best he could through the canopy.

He sat in silence for a while before he saw something flutter past the moon. He could make out the wing shape and realized that it was a bat that had flown by. He could hear a few of them in the night air. Eventually, his eyes picked out a small group of them hanging from a nearby tree. They appeared to be grooming themselves. One of them, a bit small compared to the others began flexing its wings a bit, as if unsure of itself. Then it let go and began to flit through the air. Ryo watched as it darted about the clearing, weaving around trees and letting out high-pitched squeaks as it flitted about.

"You are fascinated by the bats?"

Ryo turned to see Bagheera had moved branches to lounge on the one above him.

"You could say that…" Ryo replied quietly, his eyes returning to watch the young bat.

"You are unable to sleep?" The panther inquired. Ryo shrugged.

"I always feel different at night. It's difficult to describe. I guess… reassured is a good word." Ryo explained as best he could.

"You are different from other humans in that regard. In fact, you are different in a few others." Bagheera mentioned. Immediately Ryo tensed.

"Different how?" He asked tersely. The panther yawned before looking up at the sky.

"Your scent is different. It's subtle, at least at first. It's hidden under a few others, but the base scent isn't like the others of your group." The panther explained, before turning to look down at him.

"The others don't know, do they?" The panther prompted, though he likely knew the answer already.

"No. Not that it matters anymore. That scent is all I have left of who I was before, likely." Ryo muttered bitterly as he looked down at his hand. A few small sparks of energy danced across his palm, but it still took immense effort. Bagheera eyed him with surprise, though as he saw the toll it took on the boy, the look turned to one of pity. Then he asked another question.

"Why were you interested in the bats?"

Ryo looked up again, the loss in his voice evident.

"Because I want to be up there with them."

_Two days later…_

It had been a hard few days of travel, but Bagheera assured them that they were only a few hours away from the village.

The trek had been quiet, except for one thing. Those strange monsters that had defeated during their encounter with Bagheera kept showing up. Barkos had started documenting them, referring to the mask monsters as Hayans and the bipedal ones as Imps. Soon enough, they were close to the jungle's edge. The trees were starting to thin.

They stepped into a clearing that had a very obvious pathway that continued out of the jungle.

"This is as far as I'll take you. The village lies along this path." Bagheera explained before going stock still. His ears were twitching. He let out a low growl and looked back where they came.

"Something's coming." He muttered lowly. Ryo immediately drew his sword. Veris drew her knife, Barkos nocked an arrow and Garren hefted his axe. Then Ryo heard something. It was faint, but it was growing louder by the moment. Something was crashing through the underbrush and whatever it was, it was big.

Suddenly, something erupted from the brush and leapt over the group, landing between them and the pathway to the village.

The creature was another one of the red-wisp monsters. This one was massive, taller at the shoulder a horse. It appeared to be similar to a massive cat skeleton, made of black stone. It had massive front incisors and a massive spear-point on the end of its tail. Its claws were the size of meat cleavers and look as sharp. Its entire body was consumed in the roiling red energy. It let out an ear-splitting roar at them and began scratching at the ground in preparation to charge.

Bagheera immediately leapt for the safety of the trees while the humans all scattered. Barkos let an arrow fly, pegging it right in the shoulder, though the arrow didn't seem to do much. The creature turned and roared at him before spitting a ball of red energy at Barkos, who leapt out of harm's way. Ryo took advantage of the brief distraction to run in and run a slash along the length of the monster's body, though that only seemed to anger it. It curled its tale and swiped it at Ryo, smacking him across the clearing! Garren let out a bellow as he rushed forward and swung his axe at the creature's front legs, getting in a good hit, but again, no visible damage.

By now, Ryo had recovered and the whole group was rushing about, attacking the creature and retreating. Bagheera pitched in as well, occasionally leaping in to pull one of the teens to safety if they were in a in a tight spot. However, they couldn't see any visible progress being made.

Frustrated by this, Ryo and Garren both rushed forward simultaneously, though their recklessness was immediately punished as the monster swiped at them, knocking them both and leaving them dazed. Barkos started hurrying over to them but was grazed by the monster's tale and left similarly incapacitated. Veris made to go help Barkos, but found herself cornered, with only her knife to defend herself. The monster closed in on her, tale swiping from side to side. It's jaws slowly began to crack open, energy pouring from inside. Suddenly, it lunged forward, jaws opened for the kill! Veris' eyes widened, and she held up her hand to shield herself.

Ryo's eyes widened in horror, but they suddenly turned to shock when instead of hearing the crunch of bones and flesh caving under the monster's jaws, he instead witnessed an explosion detonating straight in the creature's face! The creature was thrown back, revealing Veris to be completely fine! Realizing that she had an opening, she rushed forward with her knife to deliver a killing blow. Then, Ryo saw a second thing he wasn't expecting; Flames were wrapped around the knife blade as Veris slashed the monster across its face before switching to a reverse grip and plunging the blade straight down between its eyes!

There was a massive get of flame from the monster's eyes, as well as its nose before the thing let loose one final roar and collapsed to the ground dead. It vanished not soon after, much like the rest of the red wisp monsters they'd faced.

The group stumbled to their feet and looked around, unsure of what to say next.

"We… we did it." Barkos managed to get out. Ryo was a bit preoccupied staring wide-eyed at Veris.

"Veris… I think… I think you're a mage." He stuttered. Veris was looking at her hands and arms in shock. Barkos and Garren were on their feet now, and Barkos was looking at her with an equally shocked expression.

"It must be magic. What else could it be?" Barkos muttered as he started pondering. As Ryo continued to process that one of his friends was capable of magic, he suddenly had a knot of dread start to build in his stomach. It seemed that Veris was thinking the same as him, as she suddenly turned very pale.

"The commander, from Woodfell… He said… He said that he could… that he could smell magic. Could he have been talking about mine?" She stuttered. Barkos frowned.

"It seems likely. There weren't any other mages in Woodfell. It's possible that there was one or two items imbued with magic could have made it into the village, though it seems unlikely given what we now know." He muttered. Ryo could see the thoughts in Barkos' head going a mile a minute, so he decided to take charge of the situation.

"Whatever the case, we need to keep moving. I'd rather not wait here for another one of those things to come charging out of the brush and kill us while we're exhausted." Ryo stated. Bagheera nodded.

"Indeed. As I said before, simply follow the pathway and you'll find the village." The panther instructed. Ryo nodded.

"Alright, lets g…"

Ryo didn't even finish the sentence when his pack started glowing. He opened it to find the breach stone was glowing!

"Oh no, Bagheera! Get clear!" He shouted before the light erupted from the stone and the four teens vanished from sight! Bagheera could scarcely believe his eyes. Unsure of what to do, the panther turned and made his way back into the jungle.

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**Alright, there's chapter 4 done!**

**Creativity: Oh man, that took WAAAY too long to write**

**Author: You mean, that it was a lot longer than we wanted.**

**Yeah, like I said, the chapter mark is probably going out the window. **

**Well, I don't have much else to say here. See ya on Tuesday!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Good day to you all! It's been a minute since I sat down to write for this story. In that time I've published one chapter of Limit Breaker and completed two chapters of Venom: Resurgence, so shit's getting done!**

**Creativity: You also went and did some rereading of some older work and what you want to do to bring it more up to date.**

**Author: Oh yeah! I'll make note of it when I get around to that, but I'll be touching up some old published and unpublished work soon.**

**Alright, now cruising along to the reviews!**

**And there's still no new reviews! Was there anything else we wanted to cover today… Oh, right! We'll be running a two-week experiment with these chapters of no opener with Sora. Either the chapters will be all Sora or no Sora. Let me know whether you prefer this style to the previous one. Well, if we got nothing else to cover, then I suppose we should jump in with the chapter proper! Let us proudly present chapter 5 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

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"We really need to get a handle of how that breach stone works…"

"Oh sure, let me just open a magic lexicon and find the chapter on breach stones. What, do you think this thing came with a manual?"

"Would you two stop arguing?!"

Ryo and Barkos, who had been going back and forth about the breach stone on and off were immediately silenced by an irate Veris shouting at them. The half-argument had lasted for the better part of their slog along a pathway that signs told them headed to a town, though they had yet to see one on the horizon. They'd been climbing up and down hills for a while now and it was starting to get irritating, and not just to Veris.

"How far do we have to go before we get to this stupid town? I feel like my feet wore through my boots three miles back." Garren complained. It was a sentiment shared by the rest of the group, made all the more frustrating that no one had a clue how close they were.

At the moment they were trudging their way up another hill, possibly the tallest one yet. However, there was something different in the air. There was a smell to it, though no one could seem to identify it. Soon enough though, they reached the top and the sight before them was a thing of beauty. Stretching ahead of them was a large town that was situated right in a bay on the ocean.

"lady and gentlemen, please tell me I'm not seeing things. Please tell me that my eyes do behold civilization." Garren breathed. The rest of the group could find no words. Instead, they just continued their march forward, though with more vigor now as they approached the town. It took them twenty minutes to make it through the town gates and another five to find the inn, where they lucked out and were able to book a room for four. The dragged their exhausted bodies up the stairs and into the room, depositing their things at the side of the bed before bolting and barring the door and window, collapsed on the beds and promptly fell asleep.

_Many, many hours later…_

Ryo and the others groaned as they awoke from their long-earned slumber, only to be greeted to the pain of their legs having caught on to just how long and far they had been walking since the breach-stone whisked them away from the jungle. Still though, they had things to do today. Chief among them was eat.

They made their way downstairs to the tavern and bought themselves breakfast. They'd slept through two meals the previous day and were ravenously hungry.

After the group had finished clearing every platter of crumbs, they immediately got up and started asking for directions to the nearest market. After someone was kind enough to give them directions, they made their way to said market and were floored. There were so many stalls, all selling merchandise of such variety that they could scarcely comprehend it all. Once they managed to get their bearings, the group started to explore the stalls. Most of the group had some quantity of munny, though Ryo easily had the fattest wallet of the group, having well over 30000 munny.

"Alright, basic supplies first, then we can start looking at equipment." Ryo reminded them. Ryo knew he'd be handling the bulk of the supplies purchases, so he went and found a vendor selling the basic necessities; several grades of potions, panaceas and a few ethers for Veris. After that, he went and purchased some rations, an up to date map of the world and a compass. The last one was a little harder to track down and it was pricy, but it would be worth it in the end.

After he'd sorted that all out, he went and tried to track down the rest of the group, since he only needed to follow the sound of raised voices before he came across his friends in the middle of a heated argument located near a section of vendors that dealt specifically in clothing, weapons and other such assorted equipment.

"Garren has an axe, you have a bow, I have a knife! A knife! How am I supposed to stay reliable in a fight with only a knife?!"

"You handled that knife pretty well in that fight with the monster two days ago! Plus, not everyone here is capable of throwing fireballs!"

"Do I look like I have a handle on that?! If I'm not getting a more reasonable weapon, then I ought to at least learn more about magic if THAT'S going to be my big contribution to the group!"

"Alright, what's going on here?" Ryo asked as he approached the arguing friends. They all turned to him and immediately assaulted him with an onslaught of questions, arguments, counterarguments and none of it made any sense.

"CALM DOWN!" He shouted at them, before offering hasty apologies to the other market goers and traders.

"Alright, so based on what I heard, you all are arguing about equipment, right?" He asked. Veris was quick to seize on the invitation.

"Out of the three of us, which one do you think is in more need of new equipment? The one with the bow that can take out enemies at long range, the one with the axe that can still do real damage and keep enemies at a distance, or the one with the knife and barely understood magic?" She asked heatedly. Barkos rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I have a bow and knife. The bow isn't much good without arrows and this knife is hardly the same quality as that high-end one that you picked up from the traders." Barkos fired back.

"And both of you aren't listening to me! This axe wasn't made for fighting! It was made for splitting logs! The edge is so dulled at this point that it won't be much better than a club soon!" Garren argued his own piece.

"Alright, enough! How much munny do you all still have?" The group answered with their numbers, none of which were enough for decent equipment.

"Well, since I still have enough, it seems I'm the one deciding who gets new gear. And no, you won't be arguing or sucking up to me for it." He said, leaving the group glaring at each other. Ryo frowned when he saw that and suddenly had an idea of how to solve the problem, as well as replenish their munny.

"Does this town have a job board like Woodfell?" He asked them. Barkos nodded.

"I noticed it when we came into town yesterday. It's back towards the town entrance." He informed them.

"Well, I think it's fair to say we need to refill our wallets, right?" He asked. The group exchanged looks before nodding in agreement.

"Well then, lets see what jobs need to get done and we can figure out the equipment thing later." He suggested, though he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Thankfully, there was no persuasion needed and the group immediately went and found the job board. After investigating it, they found one suspiciously high-paying job to clear out some monsters that had been attacking trade caravans that were entering from another entrance, connected to a pathway that lay along the ocean. There wasn't a description for the monsters, but they were probably nothing to scoff at, considering the reward.

After taking the job request, the group made their way towards the location that the monsters had reportedly been spotted in, though that didn't stop three of four from arguing more about who deserved new gear. Ryo eventually managed to tune them out, though it took more effort than he wanted to admit. In his head, he had already managed to rule out Barkos getting new gear, at least at the moment. While his bow was designed for battle, that didn't take away from its usefulness for it. That left Garren and Veris.

Veris was tricky. On the one hand, she was easily the most ill-equipped of the group at the moment, with only her knife, but that still left a problem of a knife being the only weapon she knew how to use. However, she more than made up for it with her newfound magic, though she also had a point that she didn't know how to use it yet. However, once they weren't so busy, he might be able to do something about that.

And then there was Garren. While the axe was more than serviceable as a weapon, he also had a point that the weapon hadn't originally been designed for it. The metal was softer, and the blade simply not made for combat. Of the two, Ryo was leaning more towards Garren getting the new equipment, since his needs were more immediate. While Veris hadn't tried casting any magic since the fight in the jungle, he had a feeling that if she really needed it, her magic would answer. Plus, despite how much she'd been arguing about having only a knife, she knew how to use said knife quite well. Her training from her father attested to that. Garren on the other hand, had no training and could only try to apply the knowledge from his experience in woodcutting in combat, which had worked out okay so far but would not last forever. He needed the equipment for the job and he needed to know how to use it.

However, his musings further on what equipment was a necessary purchase was interrupted when they apparently wandered into the area where the monster attacks had been taking place, as evidenced by the sudden bursts of red energy that spat forth the same red monsters they had faced in the jungle. It was more Hayans and Imps, though the group was the largest they'd faced yet.

Immediately Ryo dragged his sword from its sheath and readied himself for battle. Behind him, Garren grabbed hold of his axe, Barkos notched an arrow and Veris drew her knife. Immediately, a group of Imps charged them! Ryo and Garren immediately charged forward, being the best equipped to handle the brunt of the attack while Veris flanked to the left and Barkos provided cover fire.

As Ryo dispatched a pair of Imps with a single strike, he turned his attention to the Hayans, who were hanging back a distance. This seemed unusual, considering they'd been especially aggressive in the jungle. Before he could take a closer look though, he was suddenly swarmed by a group of Imps! As he retreated, Veris suddenly emerged from his peripheral vision and cut down two of them with her knife before an arrow pegged a third. Ryo parried a scratch from one of the remaining Imps and stabbed it before cleaving the other in half.

To his left, he could see Garren growling in frustration as he felled two more Imps for taking out a Hayan that strayed to close. Ryo began to cut his way through the pack of Imps until he got to Garren.

"How's the axe holding up?" He asked over the din of the fight, gutting another Imp. Garren growled before taking out one himself.

"The blade's gone too long without sharpening and the handle's taken too much of a beating. This axe already had a damaged handle when we left Woodfell, and the monster strikes aren't doing it any favors!" He replied before kicking away another Imp.

"Why didn't you bring this up before? Could probably have saved a lot of arguing!" Ryo exclaimed as he blocked a pair of strikes from an Imp before stabbing it between the eyes.

"Because those two were too busy arguing with each other to listen to me! Believe me, I tried a lot. There was just no getting through to them." He growled angrily as he cut down yet another Imp.

"Say, have you noticed that their numbers aren't going down?" Barkos called to them. Ryo had indeed noticed that no matter how many Imps they cut down, their numbers didn't seem to be dwindling. On top of that, the Hayans still hadn't moved too far from where they had appeared. What was going on?

"Wait, do you guys see that?" Barkos called out.

"I'm a little busy here!" Veris shouted as she fended off a small group of Imps, taking out two before Barkos finished off the last one with his bow.

"In the middle of all the Hayans! It looks like some sort of rock!" Barkos informed them. Peering closer, Ryo could indeed see there was some sort of stone that the Hayans appeared to be guarding. Then he noticed something else. After he cut down two more Imps, he noticed the stone pulse with red energy. Not even a second later, there were several flashes from which sprang more Imps.

"It's spawning more Imps! We have to take it out or we're never going to get out of this!" Ryo called out before beginning to press forward. Garren followed suit, slowly cutting his way towards the stone. Barkos followed them in, taking out the Hayans as Ryo and Garren pressed forward. Veris soon joined them, cutting down Imps as the group pressed forward.

Finally, the group was close enough and Garren charged forward with a bellow and brought down his axe on the stone as hard as he could! The stone shattered, releasing a massive blast of red energy that threw everyone in close proximity away, Garren especially. Additionally, the majority of the Imps were wiped out by the blast, leaving general cleanup relatively easy. Still, there was still a sense of unrest within the group.

"Well, at least we can safely say that the job is done, and we get the reward. Problem is, where did that stone come from?" Ryo muttered. He doubted that the stone had randomly appeared somewhere that could limit trade routes. Who, or whatever had placed it had probably done so as a test of sorts, since there were still multiple ways to enter the town, thus limiting one was in no way going to cripple the town. Still the implications were disturbing.

"Should we tell the town head about this?" Veris asked. Ryo rubbed his forehead.

"Probably. I mean, first the jungle and now here? I doubt that's a coincidence." Barkos reasoned. The group walked back to the village and collected the reward, a cool 3000 money that the group divided among itself. Afterwards, they informed the mayor of the creatures, as well as that they'd encountered them elsewhere, then made their way back to the marketplace, where Ryo saw fit to nip the resuming argument in the bud.

"Garren will be the one getting the new equipment." He said, leaving the other two immediately barraging him with arguments and questions, though he eventually managed to regain control of the situation and laid out his reasoning for Garren getting the new equipment, as he had the most immediate needs. However, when Garren immediately went to the weapons vendor and reached for a sword, Ryo stopped him.

"Look, cards on the table, I don't think you should take up the sword. It takes time to master and it just doesn't seem very… you" Ryo advised. Garren looked at him confused.

"Well, what should I use?" He asked. Ryo grinned before motioning to a battle axe that was resting off to the side. Garren picked it up, and examined it, giving a few experimental swings, much to the chagrin of the vendor before smirking.

"This'll work. This will definitely work."

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**And that's where we'll leave it for today! Next chapter, we'll probably check back in with Sora and see how he's doing in the weird shadow world we dumped him in**

**Creativity: Too bad he doesn't have any panaceas for that headache. Say, can panaceas act like magic aspirin?**

**Author: Hell if I know. So like I mentioned before, we'll be switching up chapter structures from the last four. It'll just be Sora or Ryo for a whole chapter for the next four chapters (counting this one), then we'll be pausing to write the rest with your feedback in mind.**

**Not much else to say, really. See ya on Saturday!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, it's certainly been rather hectic in terms of writing over here. We got the last two chapters of Venom: Resurgence set two done (Those having been published at the time of writing), got chapter five of this story done in between those and cranked out another chapter of Limit Breaker.**

**Creativity: We are on a roll!**

**Author: And now we're jumping straight into this one! So, this chapter's going to be Sora-centric as part of our little beta test, so don't hold back in the reviews.**

**Creativity: We really need feedback on this one.**

**Author: Indeed. Also, I just got back from seeing Detective Pikachu, and it was AWESOME! I was so charged to do something Pokémon related when I walked out of the theatre, but I already have enough projects as it is. Maybe some other day.**

**Alright, back to the story at hand. Like I said before, this is the sixth of eight chapters I will be publishing as a beta run for how the rest of the story will be written, so let me know which version you prefer. **

**Alright, now lets answer some reviews:**

**Thank you for your feedback! **

**Discord Server password: ****5RRcGwh**

**And that about covers everything for today! Now, let us present chapter 6 of Before: Kingdom Hearts**

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Sora groaned as he rose to his feet, rubbing his head.

"Well, at least it's starting to hurt less when I unlock those things…" Sora muttered as he started looking around. He was still in the crater and the guide stone was bobbing around his head in a manner that suggested impatience.

"You know, if I didn't have the Keyblade, I'd probably start muttering about projecting emotions onto an inanimate object." Sora half-heartedly quipped to himself before the guide stone zipped towards the same tunnel he'd exited from before. Sora jogged along to keep up with the stone and swiftly exited the tunnel, finding himself back in the ravine. He checked the carvings again, finding he could make out more words than before, but not many.

"Guess I need to find more obelisks." Sora thought aloud before the guide stone started floating deeper into the ravine. Sora hurried after it, following the stone through several twists and turns until he eventually reached a large open area that had a shallow crater in the middle, only going down to a foot or two deep. The crater was incredibly wide, with most of the curve centered near the edges. In the center of the crater, there was some sort of strange statue. It looked similar in design to the obelisks, but it wasn't nearly as tall, coming up to about three and a half feet. Additionally, there was a strange carving on the statue. It was a mirror image of the sigil that was embossed on the guide stone.

Sora examined the statue a bit before he started exploring the rest of the island. As he poked around, he could see a few small circles on the ground, made of the same black stone that most of the landmass in this strange world was composed of, though it was smoother and had small etchings on it. It appeared that each of the circles corresponded to one of the floating islands in the distance.

Having found nothing of use in his investigation, Sora turned to head back to the ravine, only to find the guide stone orbiting around the statue in the middle of the crater.

"Okay, please tell me this isn't going to hurt…" He muttered as he approached the statue again. Unsure of what to do, he summoned Kingdom Key and cautiously tapped the statue. Suddenly, the sigils as well as the edges of the statue began to glow purple before the statue began to sink into the ground. For a few more moments, nothing happened. Then, a strange sound filled his ears, almost like as if the very air around him gained a voice.

"… _A test of strength…"_

"What was…?" Sora muttered as he began searching for the source of the voice. Suddenly, a distorted, keening howl filled the air! Sora looked up to see what looked like some sort of wolf perched above the ravine. It snarled at him before leaping from its perch over Sora's head, landing heavily on the other side of the crater. Now that Sora could see it up close, he could see that the wolf was much larger than he originally thought. It was enormous, standing close to seven feet at the shoulder. It's front paws weren't wolf paws. Instead, they were four fingered claws, like that of a griffon. Its body was jet-black, with small black wisps rising from the joints that connected its limbs to the rest of the body, similar to his Antiform. Purple patterns ran along its body, though did not run down its front legs. On its forehead was the same sigil that decorated the guide stone and the statue that had apparently summoned it. The inside of its mouth had a slight purple glow to it.

The wolf snarled at him before letting out an earthshaking howl! As it did so, a battle barrier sprang up around the edge of the crater and the wolf settled into an aggressive stance. Sora readied his Keyblade for battle, waiting for the wolf to make its first move. It was a standoff. Both combatants tensed, waiting for the other to make a move.

Suddenly, the wolf roared and launched a blast of purple energy from its maw! Sora rolled to the side to avoid the blast and charged forward, weapon hefted to strike. The wolf charged as well, leaping into the air with its claws outstretched. Sora slid under the pounce and sprang back, slashing with all his might. The wolf let out a bark of pain and surprise as the Keyblade impacted against its back leg and sprang away, snarling and scratching at the ground before its front claws began to glow purple. It lunged forward, swiping its claws in a frenzy, creating slashes a good three feet away from its usual reach! Sora yelped in surprised and blocked a few of the strikes before one of them impacted and sent him flying backwards. The wolf immediately followed up by letting out another howl that created a roiling mass of dark energy above its jaws before it turned to face Sora and launched the blast forward. Sora couldn't do anything to block as the blast impacted, sending him skidding across the ground. Sora dragged himself to his feet and readied his Keyblade, waiting for the wolf to attack again.

"Really wish I had Reflega about now…" Sora muttered before he and the wolf charged each other once more. The two clashed several times before Sora vaulted over the wolf as it went to bite him and ran down its back while slashing at it as he went. The wolf roared in pain as Sora leapt off and took aim, firing a trio of Fire projectiles at it, each one striking home. The wolf roared again before it whirled around and snarled. Its claws took on a familiar purple glow and it sprang into a series of slashes once more. Once again, Sora managed to block a few of the strikes, only to be overwhelmed and launched back. However, as the wolf prepared the dark blast, Sora managed to right himself and ready his Keyblade. He stared down the wolf as it launched the blast at him, holding his Keyblade at the ready. The moment the blast came close enough, Sora swung around, catching the attack beneath the teeth of Kingdom Key and swinging it around a few times before he launched the blast back whence it came! The wolf was thrown back by the blast and knocked on its side, leaving it wide open for Sora to charge in with a vicious slash! The wolf let out one last cry before laying still. Sora huffed and puffed with exhaustion as he slowly lowered his guard. Suddenly, the wolf's eyes shot open and it leapt to its feet! Sora leapt back, immediately on guard. The wolf stared at him longer, before it relaxed its posture and bowed its head to him.

"…_You have passed… Go forth…" _

Sora's eyes widened as the 'voice' filled the air once again. The wolf tilted its head back and howled once again. Once it was done, it slowly padded past Sora, who kept his Keyblade raised the whole time. Then he noticed that something had changed; The disks scattered around the edges of the island were now glowing with purple energy, which arced outward and connected to islands in the distance.

"… _There are yet more shackles… Find them…" _

Sora looked around, searching for the source of the voice. Initially, he had thought It was the wolf, but that didn't seem to be the case. It almost felt like it was the world itself that was speaking to him.

"But if the world is talking, what is it trying to say? It mentioned shackles… Could that be the obelisks?" Sora wondered aloud as he held his chin in thought. Could the world be trapped by Darkness and unlocking the obelisks would free it? But then, how did those visions and the carvings on the wall figure into it all?

"Well, I won't figure it out by standing around!" Sora resolved before noticing that the wolf hadn't moved from where it had been standing before. Once it knew that it had Sora's attention, it stepped onto one of the disks and transformed into purple energy before shooting off along the arc of energy until it reached one of the islands in the distance. Sora looked at the circle hesitantly before walking up to it and taking a breath.

"Here goes nothing…" Sora muttered before stepping into the energy. There was a pulse and before he knew it, Sora was hurtling along the arc until he was deposited rather roughly on the same island that the wolf had been transported to. However, upon his arrival Sora could no longer see the wolf. However, he could see what appeared to be a large stone maze in front of him.

"Okay, there's a maze now. That means that there must have been people on this world at some point, right?" He mused as he cautiously stepped forward. As he stepped into the maze, the ground began to shake, and a wall began to rise behind him, rendering any second thoughts on entering a maze made of black stone moot.

"Great…" Sora muttered before looking at the maze. There were two directions he could go in. Then he turned to the guide stone.

"I don't suppose you have any idea where to go?" He asked hopefully. The guide stone didn't respond, instead beginning to orbit around his head.

"Of course…" Sora muttered, resigned to his fate. Looking around, he could see three pathways he could take. He looked down each one in and pondered which path he wanted to take, eventually settling on the path to his right.

From there, he wandered through the maze, searching for some hint as to what his objective here was. After what felt like ages, he found something that could potentially be the hint he was looking for. It was a massive square courtyard that had what looked like another obelisk in the middle. It wasn't the same as the other ones, though. The other ones had a square base, where as this one was triangular. Isosceles, to be precise. Additionally, there were four spirals of diamond-shaped crystals that were connected point to point that wrapped around the obelisk.

As Sora walked further into the courtyard, the 'world-voice' (as Sora had decided to call it) spoke once more.

"…_To journey forward, you must be tested… Do you accept this trial…?" _The world-voice asked. Sora pondered the question for a moment before summoning Kingdom Key in affirmation.

The crystal spirals flashed once before each crystal suddenly broke away from the spiral and floated away before beginning to float in an everchanging orbit around the obelisk. The obelisk itself began to emit black waves and purple energy before five orbs of dark energy erupted from it. The orbs floated in place for a moment or two before they suddenly began to zip about the courtyard, firing multiple blasts of purple energy at random! Several of the blasts hit the crystals, which caused the crystals to glow before firing out a blast from each facet, faster than what had originally entered. Thankfully, they didn't appear to be able to repeat the process once already going through 'refraction', for want of a better term. Still, Sora was immediately on his toes, trying to avoid the web of dark blasts.

After dodging several of the blasts, Sora took aim with his Keyblade and launched a Fire blast at the nearest orb, but the effect wasn't quite what he was going for. The orb began to roil and glow brightly before expelling a concentrated purple beam into the nearest crystal, causing it to suddenly ricochet from one crystal to another, trapping Sora in a deadly web! Suddenly, one of the blasts from a different orb hit his side, throwing him into the beam!

"Ach!" Sora shouted in pain as he was thrown across the courtyard! He quickly picked himself up and began looking for an incoming attack. After dodging some ricochet fire, he saw an opportunity and vault off one of the courtyard walls to slash at one of the orbs! Unfortunately, his Keyblade merely passed through the orb.

"That's not supposed to happen…" Sora muttered before rolling out of the way of another ricochet and blocking one of the blasts from the orbs. Then he noticed something.

Blasts that came straight from the orbs merely broke and dissipated upon impact with Kingdom Key. However, ricochet blasts bounced off the Keyblade.

"Is that…?" Sora questioned before one such ricochet blast came flying towards him. He instinctively batted it away, sending it careening into one of the orbs. The orb suddenly seized up and started sparking, though it was only a few moments before it was back to normal.

"Somehow, I don't think that did anything…" Sora grumbled before dodging out of the way of another blast. However, he knew he was on to something. Armed with his new knowledge, he scoped out another target and sent one of the ricochet blasts flying into it, causing it to seize up and spark. Capitalizing on the opening, Sora leapt into the air and slashed the orb with all his might! This time, the Keyblade connected and destroyed the orb!

"Yes!" Sora exclaimed before yelping as he dodged another blast. Now that he had solved the puzzle, it didn't take long for him to use the solution to dispose of the remaining orbs. With the destruction of the last one, there was a long moment of silence. Suddenly, the crystals all flew together and formed a pattern. A familiar one, in fact. It was the same pattern that was on the guide stone.

"I'm starting to think this sigil is important." Sora thought aloud before the obelisk began to shudder and sank down beneath the ground. Then the world-voice returned.

"…_Very well done… Take this gift…"_

The crystals began to shift before flying apart and rejoining, forming what looked like some sort of vambrace.

"…_Here… In this world… You may draw on powers you have conquered… Make them your own… But only in this world…"_

Sora hesitantly picked up the vambrace. It looked to be composed entirely of the same material as the crystals, even sporting decoration in the same pattern. Cautiously, he slipped it onto his left arm and looked at it a few times.

"…_Now… Test it…" _

Sora felt a brief headrush and fell to one knee. However, it passed quickly, and he stood back up. Looking down at the vambrace, he suddenly thrust his left hand forward! Crystals suddenly materialized around him in an intricate pattern. He thrust Kingdom Key forward, launching a gold beam from its tip that struck one of the crystals that suddenly ricochet from one crystal to the next, forming a familiar web of energy around Sora, only golden in color. Suddenly, blasts erupted rapid-fire from the crystals, outward from Sora. The attack stopped, and Sora looked down at the vambrace in surprise.

"Wow… That was… Wow." Sora breathed. Where had that come from? And how did he know how to use it?

"…_There are yet more trials within this labyrinth… And more powers to be obtained… Go forth…" _

Sora looked down at the vambrace again, this time noting that it seemed a bit duller in color.

"Must need to recharge. Well, I better keep going." Sora muttered before pressing onward into the maze. He wondered what these other trials would look like.

One thing was for sure, they were his only lead on how to get out of here.

* * *

**And that's where we'll leave it for today! I'm pretty happy with how this Sora-centric chapter turned out.**

**Creativity: That vambrace idea was a last-minute thing, right?**

**Author: Yeah, but I think it'll work in context of the story. We just gotta reach that point.**

**Anyway, we're now six chapters down and have two more to go before we go on hiatus to finish up the rest of the set. That'll be about twelve more chapters, by my estimate. Maybe more. We'll also probably see less Sora-centric chapters in future, since this isn't his story too much.**

**Creativity: People will probably be asking about why he's here to begin with.**

**Author: Oh, I have my reasons.**

**Anyway, not much left to say here. Creativity?**

**Creativity: Nope! Nothing on the docket now!**

**Author: Alright then, I'll sign off.**

**I wish you all the best and I'll see you on Tuesday!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Post Completion Edit: Sorry I was late uploading this one! I was out of wifi range and had horrible cell service so the site was misbehaving. I was lucky on Saturday (VERY LATE SATURDAY) to chapter six up and even then, I couldn't put the Discord password in. Alright, note over. Back to your regularly scheduled chapter**

* * *

**Good day to you all, and welcome to chapter seven of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

**Creativity: It's weird. It almost feels like yesterday when we started writing this, and now we're up to seven chapters already.**

**Author: I know, right? Also, the B.T.I is running low. Get to running.**

**Creativity: Dammit…**

**Author: Sorry about that! Now, where was I? Ah yes, happy Tuesday to you all! How is everyone doing this week?**

***crickets***

**Author: Well then… Why don't we move along to the reviews?**

**And STILL no new reviews! Once again, here's the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**I hope to see you in chat! Now then, I believe it is time. I proudly present chapter seven of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"I told you we should have waited another day!"

"Well, good for you! Hindsight is twenty twenty!"

Ryo wished they'd listened to Veris' intuition when they'd left the town earlier that morning. It had been clear when they started, but that was seven hours ago, and the group was currently fighting their way through a raging thunderstorm that had seemingly snuck up on them. To make matters worse, they were currently running adjacent to a mountain range and Veris had pointed out earlier that they were risking getting caught in an avalanche.

"If we don't find shelter soon we're going to be in real trouble!" Veris shouted over the din of the storm. As they pushed through, Barkos began shouting something. They couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but they could follow his gestures and saw that he'd noticed a cave they could take shelter in. They immediately hurried over to it and took refuge inside.

"Alright, first things first, we need to get a fire going. Also, check the supplies. If our spare clothes got wet in that deluge, then we want them drying yesterday." Barkos instructed them. He was the most well-learned in survival, even if most of it hadn't been put to practice until recently. As Garren frustratedly tried to get a fire going using the small amount of tinder they'd brought with in a sealed water-proof tube, Veris had an idea.

"Maybe I could use my magic to start it." Veris wondered aloud, though Ryo was quick to shoot that idea down.

"Until you learn more about how to control magic, I'd rather you not try to create a fire in an enclosed space. If you accidentally put too much into it, you could cause an explosion that could either kill us outright or collapse the cave on top of us." Ryo warned. Veris cringed a little at the thought.

"Yeah, maybe I shouldn't do that…" She stuttered, seeming all the more wary of her new abilities. Ryo immediately wished he hadn't been so blunt about the dangers of uncontrolled magic for a number of reasons, namely that it would probably be a lot harder for her to learn how to use magic the more nervous she was around it. However, he'd also let slip a detail that he had no doubt Barkos was committing to memory at that very moment. He had a tendency to do things like that, especially since Ryo was almost religiously tight-lipped about his life predating his arrival at Woodfell, something that he knew his friends were still curious about.

Garren cursed a few times as he struck the flint and Firestarter together for the umpteenth time, trying to start the fire, but was still having no success. Finally, he threw his hands up in frustration and was about to toss the tools away, only for Veris to grab them from him.

"We'll still need those." She reprimanded before trying a few times herself, cursing when the damn thing continued to fail. Finally, with a frustrated growl, she struck them together again, though there was something different this time. The sparks suddenly turned into a small puff of flame that had their fire going!

"Woah!" Garren exclaimed, scooting back in surprise. Ryo turned to see what happened and was shocked to see the fire crackling away, looking as though it had started several minutes ago.

"How did that happen?" He asked. Veris was grinning ear to ear.

"I think I used magic again! I was using the flint and Firestarter, then suddenly the sparks turned into proper fire and then we have this!" She explained ecstatically. That was a bit of a surprise for Ryo, though the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It wasn't unusual for budding pyromancers to be trained by manipulating existing fire, rather than create it themselves. It was better for teaching control.

Ryo's musings on magic training were interrupted when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Someone was entering the cave. Ryo immediately went for his sword, blade half drawn in preparation for a fight. The intruder noticed the blade and threw up their hands in surrender.

"Please don't kill me! I'm just looking to get out of the storm!" They exclaimed. Their voice was higher pitched, though not gratingly so. Now that they had stepped into the firelight, Ryo could see the intruder was a girl roughly their age, though possibly older, with wild blonde hair and vibrant yellow eyes. She was dressed in a beige tunic with a brown cloak, dark brown cotton pants and a yellow scarf. She had two knives sheathed on her left side, both of which sported an opaque yellow stone in the pommel. However, the weaponry quickly became secondary when he took another look at the scarf and noticed several characters stitched into the end of it. He knew those characters.

By now, the rest of the group had taken notice of the stranger, as well as the fact that Ryo had his sword half drawn, though he was now starting to put the blade away. The stranger visibly relaxed.

"Okay, I guess we can't exactly force you to stay outside in this weather." Ryo muttered before moving aside to let her into the cave, though he was still mistrustful. By now, Garren and Barkos were busy starting on getting dinner ready. Ryo finished sifting through his gear and getting any wet clothes laid out near the fire to dry (After changing at the back of the cave of course).

Once he got back, he found the whole group was sitting in awkward silence. He seated himself where he'd been sitting before and waited in silence for the rudimentary stew they were putting together to be ready.

"Well, if we're all sharing a cave tonight, we should probably introduce ourselves." Veris suggested.

"Alright! My name's Leiptr. I'm a traveling mage." The girl, now identified as Leiptr, introduced herself with enthusiasm. Veris' eyes immediately lit up when Leiptr mentioned she was a mage.

"Really!? You're a mage?! I'm a mage too!" Veris exclaimed, causing Leiptr's eyes to widen. Ryo noticed she seemed to concentrate for a split second before grinning.

"Wow, I never get to meet other mages! What kind of magic can you do?" She asked. Veris suddenly became much more subdued and rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed.

"I, uh… can't really control it yet. It usually just happens when I'm in trouble or when I get really frustrated, apparently. Oh, and right now I can only do fire magic." Veris explained. Ryo frowned a bit. He didn't like sharing that information with a stranger, especially since they were now aware that this 'Dread King' character out there. Though on the other hand, it might be a good idea to warn Leiptr, assuming she didn't know about him already. But still, he was suspicious of her. Especially with those letters on her scarf…

"So, what magic can you use?" Veris asked Leiptr, who grinned.

"Thunder magic for me!" She exclaimed proudly. That also caught Ryo's attention. Last he heard, mages were supposed to be able to use multiple types of magic, though they usually had a specialization. It could be that Leiptr only had a small amount of experience, though Ryo didn't believe that to be the case. His gut told him something else was up. The only people he knew of that were capable of only one variety of magic were the _tsubasa no aru_, which he knew Leiptr wasn't, or… Possibly… And that accounted for the scarf…

"Stew's ready!" Garren announced. Ryo looked up from his musings, his mind now focused on the hot food being ladled out into bowls. Leiptr and Veris had been deeply engrossed in talking about magic, though Veris was now staring down the food with perhaps more eagerness than anyone else present. As everyone began shoveling the hot food into their mouths, Ryo couldn't help but notice that Leiptr wasn't eating. In fact, she'd gone so far as to politely refuse a bowl, saying she wasn't hungry. Despite continued insistence, she refused to even take the bowl.

Once all the food was gone, the group started trying to settle in for sleep. Veris and Leiptr were both engrossed in talking about magic, though it sounded more like Veris was asking questions about magic that Leiptr was answering in stride. That led more credence to Leiptr being more well-versed in magic, which only further clashed with the fact that she only had thunder magic.

Still, he thought better of confronting her about it, especially with this storm going on. As suspicious as he was, he had no intention of chasing her out into that weather. Besides, it had a long day and the storm had really wrung them all out. Now was the time for rest.

As the fire dimmed and Ryo crawled under the bedroll, his eyelids grew incredibly heavy and soon he'd drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_A figure wrapped in a black cloak slowly crept through the unlit stone hallways of a large sanctum. It was approaching midnight. The figure peered around a corner, seeing two figures dressed in different colored robes walk slowly up to a wall and press on a brick. The wall slid away, revealing a narrow passageway. The two figures swiftly make their way into the passageway, followed immediately by the one on the black cloak. The figure carefully maneuvered their way through the narrow corridor before stealing into a side-passage and sneaking their way up a flight of stairs and into a strange, domed overhang within a massive chamber. The chamber already had a large number of occupants, all dressed in robes that were one of six colors combinations; Red and gold, blue and silver, green and grey, yellow and grey, white and gold, black and purple. _

_They all organized by color scheme, with specific patterns being further to the front. The figure waited at the edge of the overhang before six individuals emerged, one for each color scheme and all dressed much more opulently than the others. They all wore masks designed like serene faces, all using the color scheme they wore. _

"_Gathered friends, we come together this night in great celebration! For we are one step closer to reclamation!" The one dressed in white and gold exclaimed, their voice distorted unnaturally by the mask. There were cheers from the gathered crowd. _

"_Too long have we remained here, in a prison we fashioned for ourselves, believing ourselves the better for leaving the world in the stewardship of those who would tear it asunder in their ignorance! We were led to believe that by creating our own home, we would prove ourselves above such petty conflict, but we know better! The world cannot be left to those who would stomp out any perceived threat to their illegitimate throne! And now, we possess one more piece to reclaiming our rightful place! Brother Shadow, reveal to us the Dark Shard!"_

_The one dressed in black and purple parted their robes and revealed what looked like a black and purple crystal, about the length of a common dagger. The crowd made murmuring noises of excitement as the crystal was presented to them. The figure stiffened. _

"_With this, we need only the light shard and we may begin the reclamation of the world!" The one dressed in red and gold shouted. _

_As the strange meeting continued, the figure slowly crept out on the dome until they reached as close to the center as they could. Sweat beaded their forehead as dark energy began to collect around their right hand. The entire world seemed to freeze for several critical seconds before the figure dropped, slamming their hand into the ground and creating an explosion of dark energy! There was chaos and screaming before the figure leapt from the cloud below, the crystal clenched tightly in their hands._

"_CATCH THEM!" Multiple voices screeched from the room, but the figure dared not look back. They ran for their life as the collective surged into the passageways to hunt the thief down._

* * *

Ryo's eyes snapped open and darted about before he recognized his surroundings. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes before realizing how much sweat had gathered on his brow. Looking outside, he saw that the rain had stopped, and it seemed that the other storm hallmarks were gone too. Stepping outside, he the lingering smell of rain filled his nostrils as he walked a short distance away from the cave. He wasn't worried about getting lost. He never had any trouble seeing in the dark. He looked up at the night sky and took a deep breath, though the release felt shaky. He looked down at his right hand and saw it shaking a bit. He clenched it into a fist and took another deep breath before he opened it again and started concentrating. Small purple sparks began to dance across his palm.

"Come on… Come on!" He ground out as he pushed harder and harder. The sparks grew more intense, but the effort was too much, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath.

"Hey, you alright?"

Ryo turned to see Leiptr standing behind him, looking concerned.

"I'm fine. Just had and nightmare and needed some air." Ryo responded.

"You sure it was just a nightmare? The sparking seems to indicate there's more going on." She pointed out. Ryo glared at her.

"Well, I'd think you would know." He snapped back, causing her to frown.

"What's with the attitude?" She asked back in a biting tone. Ryo realized what he'd done and looked away, ashamed.

"It's nothing. I'm just having some problems right now. Sorry about that." He apologized. Leiptr didn't seem convinced.

"Yeah, and I think one of those problems is with me. You've been acting cold and distant ever since I got here. What, do you just not like magic? Is that your problem?" She retorted. Ryo rounded on her.

"Yes, you could say one of my problems is with magic, Storm Chaser."He snarled. Leiptr backed away, looking like she'd just been slapped in the face.

"H…How do…" She stuttered, only to be interrupted by Ryo.

"_Perhaps this will serve as a hint?" _He answered harshly, transitioning into a completely different language. Now she looked even more shocked.

"_You can read my… How can you read my scarf?! What are… Oh… By the Springs…" _She breathed. Ryo collected himself and sagged against a nearby tree. His body language had gone from anger and frustration to a strange mix of vulnerability, sadness and… exhaustion.

"_I heard rumors about a few stragglers, but none of them were Shadowmancers…" _She started, but Ryo put his hand up to stop her, his looking like he was about to crack.

"_Don't… Please don't say it. It's just a reminder of what I lost when I came here…" _He croaked. Leiptr was confused about that statement until she remembered the state she had found him in, prior to this conversation.

"_You mean that… Oh my… I… I can't imagine how… Oh Springs…" _She whispered in horror, now realizing what he meant. She couldn't even begin to comprehend such an existence.

"_I was reckless, and it cost me everything. I tried to build a new life here but then that was ripped away from me too, by someone named the Dread King. Now me and them are on the run, trying to figure out what to do with our lives now." _Ryo explained. Leiptr frowned at the mention of the Dread King.

"_He'll keep trying to find you, you know. You and your friend, Veris. He's hunting down magic and once he realizes what you are, he'll stop at nothing to find you. He's the reason there aren't any stragglers anymore." _She spat out, as if any word on the subject of the Dread King was poisonous.

"_I'm useless to him. I can barely summon a few sparks of power without straining myself to the point of collapse." _Ryo rebuked, bitterness creeping into his voice.

"_I wouldn't be so sure. I found the cave by tracking a magic signature, though it turned out to be two. Veris' power may be a good deal stronger than is usual for a complete novice, but yours still outshines hers by a great deal. I don't think your power is gone, so much as it is that something is blocking you. If you can overcome it, you'll have your power back." _She informed him. Ryo turned to her in shock, though he quickly regressed back into sadness and bitterness.

"_I thought I told you to not give me hope." _He muttered bitterly. Leiptr smirked.

"_Actually, you didn't." _She remarked before making her way back to the cave. Ryo stayed outside for some time before returning to the cave as well. They had a hard march ahead of them and he needed his rest.

As he did, he looked up at the sky once again. The blue-black filled with billions upon billions of stars. It had never looked so beautiful back home…

He looked down at his hand again. Whatever that block that Leiptr was talking about, he'd figure it out in time. For now, he had to focus on getting the group to the next city. Then, he'd have to figure out how to get over the block

* * *

**And that's the end of today's chapter! Wow, this one was kind of slow to start, but MAN was the ending really satisfying to write!**

**Creativity: And we got that new character too!**

**Author: We'll come back to her later… Oh what the heck, we can talk about her now!**

**So, little bit of trivia for her. Her name actually translates lightning in old Norse. **

**That's really all the trivia I have for her… Sorry about that. And we can't really do too much more on character discussion, so… You guys can discuss it amongst yourselves.**

**Creativity: Also, we're not sure if we're gonna keep with the current crew or go back to Sora for the next chapter. Probably Sora, but who knows.**

**Author: Well, not much else to say here. I think we'll just sign off then! See ya on Saturday!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello everyone! And welcome to chapter 8 of Before: KH! So, as of this writing, we're in the second week of publication for this story and things are going about as well as I expected. Crowded real-estate and all that.**

**Creativity: No kidding. I mean there's well over 70K stories in this category. It's probably gonna be a while before this story gets any traction.**

**Author: We'll see. It's early days as of this writing.**

**Anyway, this chapter is going to be Sora-centric. We'll resume Sora's journey through the shadowy world as he continues trying to figure out how the hell he's supposed to get outta there.**

**Creativity: Plus, that crystal thing was pretty cool**

**Author: Yeah, I was rather fond of that. However, we're straying off-topic. Let's answer the reviews:**

**Creativity: And there's STILL no reviews!**

**Author: Oh well. Now then, what's next on the docket… Oh right! **

**If you all didn't know, this story will be going on hiatus now that we've completed four chapters for two different styles of structure, bringing us to eight. Let me know which style you prefer, and I'll be writing the rest in that style. I'll be going dark until the season is finished, or close to it, so when it resumes it will be going until I get to the point I want to get to.**

**Creativity: So let us know your thoughts! But enough about that, you want the story proper! However, please take a moment to examine this here Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Author: Thank you, Creativity. Now then, would you care to do the honors?**

**Creativity: R…Really? Are you sure? This is the second time this year…**

**Author: Yeah, go for it.**

**Creativity: Thank you, sir! **_**Ahem… **_**Let us proudly present chapter 8 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

Sora had never been a big fan of puzzles. Crosswords, word jumbles, mazes, he didn't like any of them.

Which made his current predicament all the more frustrating. Ever since his success in the courtyard before, he'd been wandering aimlessly in search of an objective of some kind in the labyrinth of obsidian walls he roamed. He'd come across several dead ends, two of which he could have sworn he'd seen twice already. He'd taken to marking the pathway branches he'd followed on the ground with an X to indicate where he'd been. As he continued exploring the maze, he'd have one-sided conversations with his currently useless guide stone.

"I almost wish you could talk, but for some reason I think that if a magic flying stone could talk, it'd never shut up." Sora joked to the air as he kept wandering, though he was running out of things to talk about. Well, not everything. He'd been avoiding talking about Riku and Kairi. Even if the stone couldn't talk, it still felt… alive. And in a world so thoroughly dark, he didn't fully trust the stone.

The world felt strange, though. The Darkness that the world was painted in didn't feel like the Dark Realm, or even The World That Never Was. It didn't feel malevolent, nor benevolent. It was just… there, existing, neutral. It was so different from anything Sora had encountered. The Light felt warm and welcoming, while the Dark was cold and intimidating. This strange, shadowy world was neither. It didn't even feel like the emptiness he felt from Nobodies. The closest comparison he could draw was the feeling he got from the Sleeping Worlds, but even that wasn't quite right.

"You'd think after two years of adventuring, I'd stop being so surprised by everything." Sora muttered to himself before he rounded another corner and almost fell to his knees in relief when he came to another courtyard. This one also held another obelisk; one similar to the obelisk from the last courtyard. It had a triangular base, not square.

As Sora approached it, he heard the world-voice return.

"…_Yet another trial lays before you… Will you accept it…?"_

Sora didn't need to think this time. He merely summoned Kingdom Key and prepared for battle. Immediately, barrier flames erupted at all points of access to the rest of the labyrinth. A shadowy pool bubbled into existence in front of the obelisk and something began to rise out. Sora's immediate thought was Heartless, but he wasn't quite right. He wasn't quite wrong though, either.

Standing before him was a black and purple humanoid being, reminiscent of the Neoshadow Heartless. However, its proportions looked much more human. It had had several tendrils coming from its head, similar to hair that extended down to its waist and was covered in purple marks, appearing similar to some sort of full-body tattoo. It's eyes were purple with small tinges of black that made the eyes look strangely human, though it had no pupils. It's posture was upright and relaxed, not hunched over and frantic like any variety of Shadow Heartless.

The entity stared at him for a few moments before it crossed its arms in front of itself, revealing that its fingers, while about as long as a human's, ended in claws. It paused for a moment before throwing its arms out to the side, causing a purple pulse to erupt from its body! Sora braced as the pulse rushed past him like a gust of wind before he saw the entity bearing down him, purple energy crackling along its body like lightning! Sora raised Kingdom Key in defence, blocking a double-handed attack. His eyes widened when he saw that the entity's hands were encased in blades of purple energy.

"Did you steal from Xemnas or did Xemnas steal from you?" Sora wondered aloud before shoving his opponent back and charging forward, letting loose with a quick series of slashes that the entity blocked with ease before kicking Sora back. The entity leapt into the air and began to rapidly flip, becoming a whirling blade of pain heading straight for Sora's face. He rolled out of the way of the strike before unleashing a trio of Fire spells at the entity, who simply slashed through them and countered by swiping both arms upward, launching a vertical wave of violet energy towards Sora. Sora slashed down at the wave, successfully destroying it. He charged forward, entering a blade lock with entity. Sora grit his teeth as he tried to push the entity off balance, but he was losing ground. The entity was pushing him back, causing his feet to start digging trenches. He needed to get his opponent off balance if he was going to have a shot at passing this trial.

Sora shoved to the left, breaking the blade lock and throwing his opponent off-balance and leapt forward with a mighty overhead slash! The attack struck, sending the entity tumbling away, though it vanished in a purple flash, reappeared behind Sora and launched into a series of dizzying spins and flips. The movements felt similar to when he fought Rinzler, but it was less mechanical. Sora dodged and blocked the strikes before seeing an opening and dodging to the side before nailing his opponent in the chest with a Fire spell. The entity tumbled away before vanishing in a purple flash again and reappearing to Sora's right. However, it didn't immediately leap into offence. Instead, it began prowling around in a circle. Sora mimicked his foe, keeping his keyblade at his side, ready to attack. The two of them clashed once more, with Sora moving onto the offensive, transitioning between wide slashes and quick jabs, trying to break through the entity's defence.

"_This certainly isn't like any Heartless I've ever fought." _Sora thought as he finally found an opening and let loose a trio of Fire spells, each one connecting and allowing Sora to leap in for the finishing blow. He leapt into the air and dove down with a mighty slash that created a crater a few inches deep, the entity laying within it.

The entity went still, and Sora backed out of the crater and lowered his Keyblade. Suddenly, there was another flash of purple light and the entity vanished from sight! Sora turned around to see the entity standing before him, watching him impassively. He readied his keyblade for another fight, but the entity merely bowed and held its hands out.

"…_You have done well… Take this gift…" _

Purple and black energy began to collect in the entities hands before it shot forward and struck the crystal gauntlet on Sora's arm, causing a black shell to form over the crystals. The strange sigil that seemed to be everywhere in this world was cut out from the dark shell, showing the crystals underneath. He looked over and wondered what power the gauntlet had now. Suddenly, the obelisk began to shake and descended into the ground. As it did so, Sora could feel a tugging in the gauntlet. He examined it again before noticing that the crystals were glowing. Suddenly, he felt the ground shake under his feet and saw an ebony stone platform rise from the ground. A purple glow began to emanate from the platform. Sora suddenly felt energy gathering in the gauntlet, noticing the glow intensifying in sync with the platform. There was a blinding flash and suddenly, Sora was standing on the platform!

"…_You may now return to any shackles you have undone… Two more trials yet remain…"_

Sora whistled as he looked the gauntlet over once more.

"Man, that is gonna be really useful." Sora muttered with a grin. Could he get out of the labyrinth with this? He was almost tempted to try leaving, but the words of the world-voice came to mind. There were two more trials left in this maze and he didn't want to just quit now.

"Maybe the next power I get will be making you actually helpful." Sora joked to the guide stone, which didn't respond or give any indication that it had even heard him, assuming it could hear him, of course.

As Sora walked into the labyrinth, he started idly talking to the guide stone that kept fluttering around his head.

"You know, as strange as this place is, the powers from trials are pretty cool. I thought they were going to be Dark, but they aren't. It's like they altered themselves to fit me better. Darn, I should've tried that crystal attack when I had that last trial. Oh well, I can try it out later. Wish you could tell me more about this place, if you could talk. I'd like to know more about this world. Was it always shadowy like this, or was it brighter?" Sora chatted. As usual, the stone didn't reply.

"Just sucks that I lost a most of my strength and abilities just before I got here. I was doing a test to get the Keyblade Mark of Mastery, but this bad guy called Xehanort managed to catch me and tried to turn me into a vessel for his Heart. My friends saved me, but I still lost a bunch of strength. I'm lucky I still have my Fire spell." Sora continued. The stone kept bobbing around in orbit. It was sort of cathartic talking to something that wouldn't talk back. Normally he'd be trying to figure out Donald's response before responding. At least in the beginning of their time journeying together. Sora wasn't sure whether or not Donald had gotten easier to understand, or whether he'd just naturally sped up his deciphering speed with time. Sora was leaning towards the latter, considering Donald was still difficult to understand sometimes. Still, now that he was sort of on another adventure, he sort of missed Donald's squawking a bit. Plus, his spellwork would be nice to have right about now.

Still, considering the three fights he'd had since getting sucked into crazy shadow world, he figured he was doing pretty well for himself. However, he had a feeling that the wolf and the entity had taken it easy on him, merely trying to challenge him and see if he could pass some test. That was a bit of a wound to his pride, but considering all he'd been through, he didn't let it bother him. He had to focus on getting out of this world, and the only clue he had to doing that was unlocking those obelisks.

Sora rounded a corner and paused.

"Okay, did my luck get so much better or so much worse?" Sora muttered as he entered yet another courtyard. This one was much larger than the other ones and sported carvings on all four walls. They weren't like the ones on the obelisks, nor were they like the ones he'd found in the ravine. These ones were all pictures. As Sora stepped into the courtyard, the ground began to shake as a vortex of dark energy erupted in the center of the courtyard! Before his eyes, two familiar shapes emerged. They were the triangular Obelisks that Sora had found at the trials! Soon they'd risen from the ground, their positions a mirror of the other. When Sora looked closer, he noticed that if two more obelisks of the same shape were added, they'd form a complete obelisk like the ones he'd been finding prior to entering the labyrinth.

"Well, at least I know why they were shaped differently." Sora muttered as he began looking at the carvings that decorated the walls of the courtyard. One wall showed a warrior of some kind holding a single blade aloft, confronting a two-headed monster. Another showed what appeared to be angels fleeing into the sky from other people, though a few angels remained behind. A third one showed three gigantic beings, one with a face of anger that had people burning beneath it, one who's tears drowned people beneath it, and one who's face was twisted in pain and who's mere presence caused people beneath it to twist and contort in suffering and agony. Sora found that particular depiction concerning.

The final portrait displayed two people. One who was kneeling over, their skin looking cracked like stone or a broken vase. It looked like energy was erupting from their back. Another depicted someone lying in the middle of a devastated wasteland, weapons scattered about and imbedded in the ground. The clouds above had parted to reveal Kingdom Hearts shining down. Sora realized that clutched in the hands of the person lying down was a Keyblade. It didn't look like any of the ones he'd found keychains for, nor any other he'd seen before.

Suddenly the world began to shake. The clouds began to shift and swirl, as if the very world was agitated. Suddenly, dark yellow lightning flashed across the sky. It didn't look like something natural to the world.

Suddenly, the lightning suddenly struck the ground near Sora repeatedly, causing Sora to jump back in surprise and summon Kingdom Key! When the lightning had ceased, Sora's eyes widened as the smoke from the lightning strike cleared and he saw several creatures standing before him. They looked to have been carved from ash-colored rock that was heavily cracked. Dark-yellow light shone from the cracks. Several of the creatures roamed on all-fours and had four large spikes along their spines. Their heads were triangular and dotted with gaps and holes that had dark-yellow vapor floating out. Their claws looked reptilian.

Another variety stood upright, towering seven feet tall. These ones looked skeletal in nature and had three arm segments instead of two, their claws were all eleven inches long and their heads were like bird skulls. Their bodies were wrapped in crackling, dark-yellow energy. The last variety looked like the bipedal monsters he'd seen in those weird monsters he'd seen in the obelisk visions.

"…_Chosen wielder of the Keyblade, I beseech you… destroy these intruders or the worlds shall fall…"_

"Don't need to tell me to take these things out." Sora muttered as he readied his keyblade. The creatures shrieked at him and charged. Sora rushed forward to meet them, launching a few Fire projectiles ahead of him. The few that hit at least slowed them down enough for Sora to avoid the initial attacks and slash several of them before dive-rolling out behind them. There'd definitely been damage done, but clearly not enough. The quadruped monsters roared at him angrily before the yellow glow began to grow more intense. Sora could hazard a guess as to what was coming and prepared himself to dodge. The creatures unleashed a hailstorm of yellow blasts at Sora, each about the size of a fist! Sora managed to dodge and block the blasts before he saw one of the giant ones lumbering towards him to attack. As Sora prepared to counterattack, a shadow passed over him and his jaw dropped.

The wolf had returned and had tackled the monster to the ground before its jaws latched around the monster's throat and it ripped it apart! The wolf then turned to the other monsters and growled, the echoing sound filling the entire courtyard. Sora hesitantly readied his keyblade as the wolf unleashed a flurry of dark energy blasts from its mouth before charging in with a series of slashes and bites. Sora rushed forward began hacking away at the monsters as well.

The wolf undoubtedly was pulling the most weight with clearing the monsters out and soon they were gone. They vanished in explosions of dark-yellow energy, leaving Sora alone with the wolf. It snorted in a way that indicated displeasure regarding the monsters before it promptly leapt up to the maze walls and out of sight.

"Well, that was weird." Sora stated. The guide stone was acting a bit more erratic. Whatever those monsters were, it seemed that nothing here welcomed them.

"…_The cursed…They must not enter the realm of light…They sense the shackles loosening and fear it…You must make haste…"_

Sora frowned as the world voice faded away. He'd noticed a sigil on each of the monsters' bodies that matched the sigil on the third entity of the third carving.

"What have I gotten wrapped up in this time?" Sora moaned as he looked for another exit from the larger courtyard. Things could never be straightforward in his adventures, could they?

* * *

**AND WE. ARE. DONE!**

**For now at least. I'm really satisfied with how this one turned out, and I'm really looking forward to getting feedback and starting up again. As of this writing, we published chapter four and now we'll be breaking until we hear back what style the readers want.**

**Creativity: My guess will be style 2. One perspective for a whole chapter works better for shorter chapters.**

**Author: That works if the chapters **_**stay**_** short. But enough about that.**

**I don't really have much to say here, so I'll just sign off for now. I hope to see you in Discord and I'll see you all when we return!**


	9. Chapter 9

**STRIKE THE GONG AND SOUND THE TRUMPETS, WE'RE BACK! **

**Creativity: OH YEAH!**

**Author: Yes, after letting the story sit and simmer for a while, as well as letting feedback regarding structure style, we're ready to return! And wow, have we been busy in the intervening weeks! We've cranked out a few chapters for Limit Breaker, are one chapter away from completing another chapter set for Venom: Resurgence (as of this writing) and we're doing a bit of finalizing for something else…**

**Creativity: Is that why we have the giant floating baby head in here?**

**Author: Yes that's wh… Wait, what?! How did you get in here! GO! OUT! Back to the Tri-State Area where you belong!**

**Anyway, I figured I'd take the opportunity to answer all the reviews that occurred while we were away. So…**

**IanAlphaAxel: Many thanks!**

**TheCrankyWriter: Once again, many thanks. And also thank you for letting me know your thoughts on structure style.**

**CeleneTheAngel: Didn't mention this before, but if I was in it for the traffic, this story wouldn't be getting a chapter 9. I mean sure, traffic and reviews are nice, but just getting the story out there is enough for me. Even if I want to reach as many people as I can with it.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Now then, shall we begin?**

**Creativity: Nothing on the docket… wait! We forgot to announce which structure style won!**

**Author: Oh, right! So, perspectives will be switching on a chapter by chapter basis, meaning we'll be getting a whole chapter with Sora before switching to a whole chapter with Ryo and his group. Speaking of, I believe the chapter is about ready to start! **_**Ahem…**_

**Now then, let us proudly present chapter 9 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

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If Ryo wasn't worried about the consequences, he'd have grabbed Garren's new battle axe and taken it straight to the breach stone as soon as they were back from the jungle. However, as the damn thing started to light up once more, he was starting to weigh the pros and cons once more. He barely shouted out a word of warning when the stone suddenly erupted with light!

They'd been on the road for a few hours and had been considering stopping for a rest. Plus, Veris had wanted to go over a few notes she'd gotten from Leiptr regarding basic magic. They'd parted ways a few days ago but before she left, Leiptr gave Veris a few quick lessons on casting magic. She'd gotten it down to throwing simple fireballs, as well as being able to conjure up a few embers for lighting campfires, though she seemed a bit disappointed that she wasn't able to create the explosion that had killed the Nemean, as Barkos had named the giant monster from the jungle. Ryo didn't say it, but he was glad she wasn't slinging that kind of power around yet. That kind of unrestrained power would create more problems than it solved.

In fact, Veris had just been commenting on how she wanted to start training to increase the power of her magic when the damn breach stone started flashing and Ryo shouted his warning.

Ryo could feel and hear wind roaring past him and felt all his weight drop away for what simultaneously like a moment and an eternity before his weight returned and he collapsed to the ground. He could see Veris, Garren and Barkos all similarly off their feet. Ryo pulled himself to his feet and looked around. They had landed in the back alley of a large town. The differences were immediately apparent. For one, the roads, including the back alley they'd landed in were all stone pathways. Incredibly smooth and well-maintained to boot. Additionally, while they did have wooden framing, the walls were all composed of what appeared to be a single block of stone contained within said wooden frames, each house being painted a different color.

After everyone had gotten to their feet, the group walked out of the alley and started to explore. The town was quite large and even had a decent-sized castle in the distance!

"Well, we did need to stock up on food. Let's find the market and see if we can find anything." Barkos suggested. They didn't exactly have anything better to do, so they took a right turn and continued down the street, passing by the local townsfolk, who glanced strangely at them, but were still courteous and greeted them.

"You know, this place is actually really nice! It looks like the cities that the traders would describe when they visited town, but it feels smaller than I imagined." Veris commented as they passed a few more people in the street. Suddenly, they heard what sounded like screams coming from up ahead! People were fleeing towards them though luckily, they didn't look wounded. One of the fleeing townsfolk tripped near Barkos, who immediately moved to help them up.

"What's going on?!" Barkos exclaimed as the man turned to keep flying.

"Monsters! Monsters in the square!" the man shouted before he kept running. The group all exchanged glances before they started running towards the alleged monsters.

"Who wants to bet that they're going to be the same monsters we've been running into all this time?" Garren called to the rest of the group, who were of similar thought. A thought that turned out to be correct. A large group of Hayans and Imps, as well as a new variety that walked on all fours and appears similar to a cat of some kind. It's shoulder came up to about mid-thigh on Ryo and much like the imps, it's body looked almost like a roughly carved stone skeleton. However, the defining feature of the new creature was a tail that served to almost double the length of the creature. It was thin and thrashed about like a whip and ended with a large, spiked bludgeon. The town guards were doing their best to hold their own against the invaders, but it was obvious they were fighting a losing battle.

Seeing one of the guards cornered by one of the cat monsters and about to be finished off, Barkos nocked an arrow and pegged it in the shoulder, causing the creature to recoil violently before letting out a gravelly shriek, loping towards them. Garren immediately hefted his axe and brought it down on the monster, destroying it with a single strike!

Ryo and Veris had both taken off in different directions, weapons drawn. Ryo slashed his way through several Hayans, opting to take them out first before they could swarm himself or the others. Veris on the other hand was using her knife and her rudimentary knowledge of magic to take out enemies at both short and long range, though it appeared that these new cat-like enemies were more resistant to magic than the hayans or the imps. Thankfully, they had Garren to handle those, and handle them he did. With each swing of his axe he demolished one of the monsters, sometimes multiple in a single swing! All the while he had Barkos providing cover with his bow.

Ryo snarled as one of the cat monsters lunged at him, whipping its tail about in an erratic pattern. The weight behind it meant that he had to be careful when he blocked, lest his sword be broken. After spotting an opening, Ryo rushed forward and stabbed the monster in between the eyes before withdrawing the blade and swiping it down on the creature's neck, causing it to vanish in a burst of red and black energy. Hearing a familiar sound of scraping claws running towards him, Ryo spun around with a horizontal slice, taking out the imp that had been trying to attack him from behind.

The battle raged on for only a few more minutes before the monsters were cleared out and by the end of it the group was exhausted, particularly Veris. She'd made liberal use of her magic and the consequences had just caught up with her as she stumbled a bit while they regrouped. Noticing this, Ryo immediately started searching through his pack for an ether.

"Leiptr warned you about overdoing it with magic." Ryo admonished as he found the item in question and handed it to her.

"I know, I know. I guess I just got caught up in the moment." Veris replied as she downed the ether, the effects immediately apparent as she looked much more alert than a few seconds ago.

"Hopefully we can find you a proper teacher so that things like this won't happen again." Barkos muttered. Veris shot a look at him as Garren frowned.

"Everywhere we go those damn things show up and I really don't like it." Garren growled as he replaced his axe on his back. Ryo sheathed his sword as he looked around. The townsfolk were slowly returning to the square and the guards were looking at them, gobsmacked.

"Maybe lets continue this conversation later." Ryo murmured to the rest of the group, who agreed when they realized the number of eyes on them, as well as the guards rushing towards them, as well as several townsfolk. The next few minutes were a blur of thanks for their bravery, compliments on their skill and insistence that they be introduced to the acting ruler. Despite all their polite protests, the guards still escorted them right up to the palace where they waited for about ten minutes before the ruler emerged from the castle, flanked by two more guards and two retainers and a woman with black hair, blue eyes and an elaborately decorated cloak that was probably married to the ruler, or vice versa. The next few minutes were the guards telling the ruler what had happened in the square. After explaining everything, the ruler eyed them carefully. Looking closer, the ruler's attire indicated that he was of higher standing than a simple governor. Additionally, his orange/brown eyes showed incredible intelligence.

"Hmm… Would you four be so kind as to introduce yourselves?" The ruler asked.

"Oh, sorry your majesty. My name is Barkos." Barkos replied quickly.

"Veris, your majesty." Veris introduced herself.

"Garren, your majesty." Garren added, leaving one more.

"My name is Ryo, your majesty." Ryo concluded. The ruler continued to eye them. Ryo wasn't sure what he was looking for, but it was a bit unnerving. After a few more moments, the king spoke once more.

"I am King Ansem III, and this is Queen Arryn. I thank you, all of you, for your service to Radiant Garden." The ruler, now known as Ansem declared. Ryo could tell that while it was indeed heartfelt, there was and underlying suspicion, as well as a…tiredness. Something told him that Ansem wished to have a longer conversation about what had happened in the square; a conversation that Ryo would bet good munny on was going to be… difficult.

Meanwhile, Barkos had frozen with shock the moment the king was revealed as such, his eyes almost comically wide. Hopefully this audience would be swift so that he could explain the significance of the king's statement that would cause him to react this way.

Ryo's thoughts were interrupted when Veris jabbed him in the side with her elbow, having noticed his mind wandering and reminding him to pay attention.

"Such bravery should be rewarded. What is it you have need of, travelers?" King Ansem inquired. Ryo glanced at his friends before answering.

"Only lodgings and provisions, king Ansem. Nothing more." Ryo answered hesitantly. The group nodded in agreement, though they seemed a bit deflated that Ryo hadn't asked for anything more… substantial, though they didn't voice any objections. It wouldn't be a good idea to ask for treasure of some kind or too much munny, since they didn't want to be weighed down on the road.

The king was also surprised by the request, though after a moment, he smiled a bit.

"Very well then. You will be lodged in the castle for the rest of your stay, and your provisions will be payed for by the crown." He declared, catching everyone by surprise.

"Your highness, we can't possibl…" Veris started, only to by halted by the king's hand.

"I will provide the requested reward as I see worthy of your deeds. Now come. You must be tired after your journey." The King stated firmly, though there was the ghost of a smile on his face.

Ryo glanced at the group as they were escorted into the castle, still a bit dumbfounded. They were led through several long corridors, all decorated with grand paintings and tapestries. Though Ryo would have preferred to just be led to their rooms, he kept his mouth shut as they were given a guided tour of the castle by one of the king's attendants. Ryo wasn't really paying attention to half the tour, since he was busy trying to parse out why the king had 'invited' them into his castle instead of simply paying for lodgings at the inn. Generosity was one thing, but this whole situation made Ryo suspicious.

"Now on the left passage, you'll find the grand library, which houses tomes and scrolls on virtually any subject one can conceive, while the right passage takes you to the gardens, which also overlook the training field." The attendant informed them. Both Barkos and Veris were very interested in the library, while Garren was more interested in the practice field that the attendant had mentioned.

"Pardon me, but how do I get to the practice field?" He asked. The attendant help up their hand.

"Please be patient, sir. We will reach it soon enough." The attendant assured. The field was actually down a level, which was obvious in retrospect considering the gardens were stated to be on a higher elevation than the practice field. After that there was the 'gallery of kings' which was a long hallway that bore portraits of each previous ruler of Radiant Garden. Ryo wasn't terribly interested in that, nor were any of the group, save possibly Barkos. Lastly, they were shown king Ansem's 'personal collection', which Ryo was confused by, at least at first. An initial glance showed an assortment of old relics like weapons and pottery, old stone tablets with carvings on them, some broken old statues and several antique paintings, though another pass made Ryo incredibly nervous. He just prayed it didn't show as they were _finally_ led to their rooms. Or just room, singular. Not that it was an issue. The thing had four beds in it already all, well, king sized and had drawable curtains. Amazingly, there was _still_ more than enough room for each of them to construct a cottage from Woodfell inside. Additionally, the room had windows overlooking the rest of Radiant Garden.

"I can't believe that the breach stone brought us all the way to Radiant Garden of all places!" Barkos exclaimed as he laid his things down and drew the curtain around his bed so he could change.

"I've heard the name before, but I'm struggling to remember the significance." Veris replied as followed suit, drawing the curtain around her bed for privacy while she changed.

"Oh come on! Radiant Garden! The city of Light! It's incredibly famous for its beauty and welcoming attitude! It's also reputed for producing many strong heroes, both warriors and mages!" Barkos explained with obvious excitement in his voice. Ryo wished he could share in that excitement, but he was still apprehensive about this whole situation. As he changed into something cleaner, and hopefully more presentable however, they got a knock at the door. Quickly pulling the clothes on as Barkos answered the door, he stepped out from behind the curtains to find several of the castle's servants entering the room.

"Apologies for the interruption, but the king and queen wish for you to attend dinner and be dressed more appropriately." One of the servants explained while the rest began pulling them aside and taking measurements. As uncomfortable and intrusive as it was, the process was over in less than a minute.

"An attendant will arrive fifteen minutes before dinner to deliver your new garments and escort you to the dinner." The servant informed them before they left. Unperturbed, Garren casually leapt onto the bed, landing on his back.

"Ah, that's the stuff. I could get used to this." He sighed with content. As Ryo sat on the side of his own bed, he had to agree that they were indeed comfortable. After shedding his boots, he lay back on the bed. It was relaxing to be sure, but he was still tense.

"Ryo, are you okay? You've been really quiet since we introduced ourselves." Veris asked, notes of concern in her voice.

"It's nothing. I'm probably just on edge still from the fight in the square earlier. I'll be fine, don't worry." He replied, though he had the feeling that they weren't convinced. Thankfully, they didn't press him on it. He didn't want to worry them over what could easily just be generous hospitality.

The group rested until they heard a familiar rapping of knuckles against the door, followed by four servants entering the room, each carrying a bundle of clothes.

After taking the clothes, they were all given privacy to change. Ryo was impressed with the ensemble that they had put together for him. It consisted of a black shirt, black coat with silver clasps, purple lining and purple trim around the collar and sleeves, black pants with a gray belt and silver buckle, all finished off with black boots.

After making sure he had everything, he emerged from behind the curtain to find Barkos and Veris already dressed. Veris was dressed in a white shirt with a frilled collar, a red high collar coat with silver clasps and white trim around the sleeves and attached red skirt, white pants with a red floral pattern stitched into the left side of her left leg and black shoes.

Barkos was dressed similarly to Ryo, though his colors were a forest green, black and brown. There were a few noticeable differences aside from color as well. For one, his coat sported to black lines running from the shoulder down to the lapel, brass clasps and silver trim on his coat. The lining of the coat, his shirt and hist boots were black while his trousers and belt were brown.

"looking sharp." Barkos complimented Ryo. Ryo had to admit that the clothes did look quite nice. Whoever had put these together on short notice really knew what they were doing.

"Hey Garren! Everything okay?" Veris called out to the last curtain. There was some rustling for a moment before Garren emerged from behind the curtain, looking a bit frustrated.

"I'm fine. These clothes were just… stubborn." He replied through gritted teeth. However, despite Garren's obvious frustration, he'd managed to get everything on correctly. His outfit consisted of a dark blue coat with black leather patches on the shoulders and elbows, silver trim and clasps, a dark gray shirt, black belt with silver buckle, black trousers and black boots.

After they finished passing around compliments on each others clothes, they stepped out of the room and were escorted to an enormous, slightly imposing dining room. There were several crystal and gold chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, paintings and tapestries along the walls (mostly landscape portraits of Radiant Garden for the former). The king and queen were already seated, waiting patiently for them.

Dinner was rather quiet, at least to Ryo. There was polite conversation the whole time, with Barkos doing most of the talking. Ryo kept quiet the whole time, not speaking unless spoken to. Additionally, he noticed that the queen kept eyeing both himself and Veris, which he found disconcerting. He didn't know why, but he had a gut feeling that the queen knew, or at least suspecting something about the two of them.

"So, your highness, I was wondering about a few of the paintings and weapons in your collection." Barkos started. Ryo felt his muscles tighten the moment Barkos finished that sentence.

"I see. What exactly were you wondering?" the king asked.

"Well, in regards to the portraits, they were all depictions of war, right? War with the _tsubasa no aru." _Barkos continued with hints of trepidation. The king nodded.

"Indeed. My whole collection revolves around the winged people. They are a subject of study for me when I have spare time." The king explained. Ryo's glanced between the king and Barkos before his gaze dropped back to his food and didn't leave it until dinner was over. After being escorted back to their rooms, Ryo immediately bade his friends goodnight and drew the curtains around his bed before sitting on the edge of it, rubbing his temples.

"_As if I couldn't be stressed out enough." _Ryo thought to himself as he folded the clothes and piled them neatly beside his bed before crawling under the covers. He heard quiet discussion from his friends for a few minutes before they all went to bed too. He could hear Garren's mild snoring across the room.

As Ryo lay there, trying to fall asleep, his mind turned back to his last conversation with Leiptr. She'd claimed that his power could be regained, and he'd been trying to do some basic exercises to draw on that well of strength when he had the opportunity, but those opportunities were few and far between. Maybe he could find somewhere in the castle he could practice. Garren was right when he said that those monsters had a tendency to show up wherever they were, and they were getting more dangerous to boot. If this kept up, Ryo knew he'd need all the power he could get.

Otherwise, he had a feeling that their journey was going to reach a very abrupt end.

* * *

**And that's where we'll leave it for today! **

**Creativity: Went a tiny bit off script there didn't you? Once we got to Radiant Garden I mean.**

**Author: I don't think so. It's still all going in the same direction.**

**So yeah, we're in Radiant Garden! And before you all ask, king Ansem the III is the grandfather to the Ansem we meet in the games. **

**So yeah, the group is gonna be chilling with royalty for a chapter or two! Why, you may ask? Well, you'll see later. **

**Well, not much to add here! Just glad to be back and working on this story. I'll probably just go until I've finished the first season and then start publishing again, but I don't think it'll take too long. Especially if I get into a good groove with it.**

**And with that, I'll sign off for now! I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you on Saturday!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Greetings everyone! I hope you all are having a great start to your weekend. **

**Creativity: Saturday is here again~~~**

**Author: And who doesn't love Saturday?**

**So, I started writing this the exact second I was done with chapter 9 and I'm currently in lake country (different one) and completely off the grid, so writing is basically the only thing I can do with my PC right now. So we're getting shit done right now. **

**Creativity: I love it when we're this productive.**

**Author: Anyway, just a bit of quick clarification before we begin.**

**So, there's no perspective shift this week, meaning we're still with our group of four and not solo Sora. Reason being is because I feel cutting back to Sora now would be a bit disruptive to the story, at least right now. **

**Alright, with that out of the way, let's move on to the reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: One thing I've been trying to convey with Ryo in this season, especially in some of the upcoming stuff, is how tense he is, all the time. As for the Ansem thing, I mentioned in the closing notes in the last chapter that this Ansem is the grandfather of the Ansem we meet in the games. As for the whole Darkness thing, I have a meme or two to convey that, heheheh... But, that'll have to wait until later.**

**Now that we've got that sorted, we provide the Discord password: HRRcGwh**

**And that's that! Now then… **_**ahem…**_** Let us proudly present chapter 10 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

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There were many things about this castle that left Ryo in awe. It's sheer size, the resources it laid at his disposal that ranged from the practice field, to the library, to the bath house (He'd come to really enjoy the bath house) even the gardens, though he'd begun avoiding those since the queen tended to frequent them. However, one thing above all else astounded him.

"Is there no place in this castle where I can meditate without fear of discovery or interruption?!" He fumed to himself under his breath as he made his way to the library. Having tried the garden already, only to find the queen already there, Ryo had then gone on to try and find somewhere that he could go through the most basic of exercises without someone finding him.

Which led straight to why he'd decided to visit the library. Having decided he'd wasted enough time on searching the castle for somewhere he'd be left alone, he then came to the conclusion that practicing his swordsmanship or do some research. He'd decided on the latter and was now stepping into the library. The sight before him was enough to take his breath away. Shelves upon shelves of books upon books. Ryo had no idea where to even start!

As he wandered through the many rows of books, he eventually happened upon a familiar head of platinum blond hair.

"Veris?" He asked, startling her.

"Oh, Ryo! Sorry, I didn't hear you coming." She quickly explained. Ryo looked at the shelf she'd been examining.

"What are you looking for?" He asked, though he already had an idea of what the answer would be.

"I'm trying to find some books on magic. I want to see if there's any other forms I can learn aside from fire." She answered before she started heading down an aisle, Ryo in tow.

"What were you searching for?" She asked as she looked at a few more shelves. Ryo shrugged.

"More or less the same actually, though I'm more interested in the history of magic, the exploration of it, so on and so forth. Not really actual spellcasting." He answered. Veris pulled a book from the shelf and thumbed through it a bit before she suddenly made a face and put it back.

"I'd leave that one alone. It's a… well, just leave it alone. Anyway, that kind of sounds like what Barkos was doing. I think he's up near the reading tables if you want to try and find him." She suggested before they rounded the corner to find the queen perusing a shelf.

"Oh, good morning! What are you two searching for?" She inquired politely with a friendly smile.

"Oh, well… I recently discovered I'm a mage, and I'm trying to learn more about magic." Veris explained a bit shyly. The queen looked at her a bit strangely for a second before turning around and making her way through the library, leaving them alone.

"Why'd she…" Veris started before the queen returned with three books in her arms.

"Year One Magical Theory, The Four Stars: Elements of Magic, and Practical Application of Magic. I believe that is sufficient for a beginner." The queen informed Veris as she handed the books to her with a nearly invisible grin playing on her face. Veris' eyes widened.

"Th… Thank you, your highness." She stuttered before hurrying off to start reading. Ryo was about to bid the queen farewell so he could find Barkos when she held up her hand to stop him.

"I can't imagine you'll have much luck drawing on your power while your soul is so tightly wound." She told him in a hushed tone of voice. Ryo froze in place, mentally cursing that he'd left his sword in the bedroom.

"How do you…" He started before the queen held up one finger to silence him before a single small flame like that of a candle sprang up from her fingertip. He could see her lips creeping up a bit.

"You're a…" Ryo started before remembering the queen's gesture to keep quiet.

"I've never met a mage who was in such flux. It's no wonder your power is all but inaccessible at the moment." She commented, her face turning into a sympathetic frown.

Ryo was at least a bit relieved to have figured out why the queen had taken interest in both himself and Veris, that being she was a mage, one so accomplished that she was able to sense magic in others. Not an uncommon ability, though it was exceptional to sense magic on someone as new to this as Veris was. Even more so that she was able to diagnose what was wrong with Ryo so quickly. Even _he _had been struggling to figure it out until Leiptr had pointed him in the right direction. That still didn't discount the fact that the queen had figured out in the span of a couple days (probably less) what had taken him _two years _to figure out. That last bit was a bit of a wound to Ryo's pride, though in his defence, he hadn't exactly been in the best frame of mind the couple of years.

"Unfortunately, I don't know what's to be done about a case this serious. As I said, your power has been self-bottlenecked to a degree I didn't think was possible." The queen muttered in her hushed tone. Ryo didn't answer, except to look at his palm. He wanted to try drawing on his power, but he knew that was all but impossible. Instead he let his arm drop limply to his side, his face suddenly looking very, very tired.

"With all due respect your highness, I'm going to go find Barkos. Last I heard he possibly might have a few books that I was looking for." Ryo replied, the tiredness on his face seeping into his voice as he left to go find Barkos.

Unfortunately, despite all his searching Ryo was unable to find Barkos. A bit irritated that he'd spent this much time today accomplishing nothing, he decided to head back to the room and retrieve his sword to get some practice in down on the training field. As he navigated the castle corridors, he found himself passing by the king's collection. At the mere sight of it, Ryo wanted to pick up his pace and get as far from it as he could, but something stopped him. He couldn't explain it, but he simultaneously felt drawn to and repelled by the collection.

As he walked in, he ignored all of the paintings and instead examined the stone tablets. The inscriptions were worn, and sections were completely illegible. Additionally, the context of them would be a little hard to decipher without the rest of the inscriptions. Still Ryo decided to give them a once over.

"Retaliation… spiteful recklessness… rage, anguish and pain given form… abandoned… betrayed again… What does this all mean?"

Ryo unconsciously reached towards the tablet before suddenly the entire room went dark! Suddenly, he was standing not in a castle, but in the middle of a battlefield! Gouts of flame rose from the ground, reaching well over triple Ryo's height, though it did little to brighten the night sky. The air was thick with smoke and the stench of blood and battle. He could see people with different colored wings swooping about, though the smoke made it hard to get a good look at them. He could also see plenty of humans running about the battlefield. Both humans and the winged people both were displaying desperation and terror, and Ryo realized they weren't fighting each other, but something else. Something else that towered in the distance, standing well over twenty feet tall. Its body was hulking and its face brutish, with skin looking like rough-hewn rock that had been scorched in hell. It's body was covered in strange cracks from which red energy leaked out. It stood on two legs with arms that reached down to the ground, like a gorilla. It's maw was crooked and filled with large, jagged teeth. It let out a deep, grating roar before suddenly everything lit up and Ryo stumbled backwards. He was back in the castle. His face had gone pale and beads of sweat rolled down his face.

"What in the Springs' names…" Ryo gasped to himself as he got to his feet and wiped his face on his sleeve before making his way to the room and shutting himself inside and grabbing his sword. He wasn't sure what he'd just seen, but it was in no way good. Setting aside that the giant monster he'd seen in… whatever that had just been, had an aesthetic too similar to the creatures they'd been fighting to be a coincidence, it had been successfully standing up to a group of humans and _tsubasa no aru._ No, not just standing up to them. It had been winning by a wide margin.

"Alright, get a hold of yourself." Ryo muttered to himself as he took a few breaths before leaving the room and heading down to the training grounds. First he walked over to a large barrel of water nearby and splashed it in his face to make sure he'd snapped out of his panicked state and walked over to a nearby training dummy and drew his sword. Going through a few sets would help him parse out whatever that tablet had shown him, if it was the tablet.

As he swung the blade in a series of well-practiced motions, Ryo began analyzing what he could remember from the vision, for lack of a better term.

No recorded history that Ryo could readily recall spoke of humans and the _winged ones_ doing battle with a common enemy. There had been peace for several years upon their return, then wore had broken out with the _tsubasa no aru_ retreating to a world of their own making. Of course, there'd been stragglers who didn't make it to the other world, but there was no record of the two races uniting against anything before or after the war.

"So what the hell did I just see?" Ryo muttered as he finished his seventh set. No matter how he looked at it, this whole thing didn't make any sense, at least from a historic standpoint. For a moment, Ryo considered the possibility that it was a vision of the future, but that didn't really hold any water either. Clairvoyance was not a power he possessed, of that he was sure. Additionally, it was all but certain that the tablets had been what triggered that vision, and visions of the future couldn't be bound to history record. The clash would render them impossible, even if it was possible to store visions in ordinary stone.

"Guess I'm back to square one…" Ryo muttered as he sheathed the blade and went back to the barrel to splash his face again before heading back to the room, only to get waylaid by one of the castle staff rushing by, and not paying attention when they ran headlong into Ryo, causing both of them to tumble to the ground. Ryo groaned as he rolled over and started climbing to his feet, only to see that the servant was already running down the hallway. Then he heard a familiar growl down the hallway.

Clamouring to his feet, Ryo whirled around and dragged his sword from its sheathe, turning just in time to dodge as a spiked tail went sailing through the space his head had been occupying just a few moments ago. Ryo immediately swung his sword upward, cutting the dangerous half of the appendage clean off of the owner's body. Said owner, one of the cat-like monsters they'd fought in the square a couple days ago, let out a grating roar before whirling around and snapping at him with its jagged jaws! Ryo rolled to avoid the strike and sprang forward, slashing the creature apart.

As the creature disappeared in a flash of red, Ryo began frantically scanning the hallways. They'd only once encountered one of these creatures by itself, and that one had been much larger and more powerful than these ones, which likely meant that the castle had a whole pack of them roaming around.

Turning around, Ryo ran back to the training field, where he'd earlier seen Garren practicing with his axe. Luckily, he was still there, taking a break.

"We've got a problem, come on!" Ryo shouted to him before running back into the castle. He almost wished he waited, since he was now staring down a swarm of hayans that were currently barreling down the corridor towards him.

Ryo cursed as he began cutting down the mask monsters by himself, narrowly avoiding their attempts to bite him, though a few got lucky hits in.

"Come on, where do these things keep coming from?!" Ryo shouted angrily as he cut down three more. No matter how many he destroyed, it felt like there was always another to take the vacant place. As he stabbed another one straight between the eyes, he could see another one making a beeline straight for his face! He turned to cut it down, only for an axe to rend it asunder. Ryo allowed himself a small grin as he saw Garren sweep his weapon from left to right, cutting down multiple mask monsters with each swing. The two friends stood back to back as they cut down the hayans as best they could, but still it felt like they couldn't make a dent in their numbers.

"How long do you think we can keep this up?!" Garren shouted as he cut his way through three hayans with one swing.

"Not the question I'd ask right about now!" Ryo responded, trying to find a way out of the swarm. Suddenly, he felt the hairs on his neck start to stand on end, followed by the faint smell of ozone. His eyes widened.

"HIT THE DIRT!" He shouted before grabbing Garren and dragged him to the floor before the room was filled with the booming sound of thunder! Lightning arced through the air, destroying each and every one of the hayans, though Ryo and Garren were miraculously unharmed. After clamoring to their feet, they turned to see queen Arryn standing in the corridor, hand outstretched with lightning still arcing between her fingertips and a severe expression on her face.

"Okay, there's magic, then there was whatever THAT was!" Ryo exclaimed as he and Garren hurried over.

"How did they get into the castle?" She growled as she lowered her hand. Both boys were a bit spooked by her tone of voice, as if she blamed them. Ryo got the feeling she didn't really, but it was still unnerving.

"I might have an idea." He started as they started advancing through the corridors towards the library; the last place that Veris and Barkos had been seen. As they entered, Ryo shared his thoughts on the infiltration.

"When we were travelling, we took a job to exterminate some monsters that had been harassing a village. Turns out those monsters were actually the same variety that were in the square before and are now in the castle, and they were coming from a strange carved stone. Long shot, but maybe one of those stones is hidden somewhere in Radiant Garden? Probably near the castle if they managed to get inside without raising some sort of alarm?" Ryo suggested.

"That makes some sense, but where could they possibly hide something like that rock? It would stick out quite a bit in a place like this." Garren pointed out. Ryo had to agree, but he considered this explanation to be the most likely. However, that needed to be dealt with later. For now, they had to clear the castle of intruders.

Thankfully, they reached the library to find Veris had already made her way out and was using her knife and fire magic to stand her ground against a group of imps that were attacking her and a small group of servants that were too afraid to leave the library. The queen threw her hand outward as flames began to dance around her fingers.

"Firaza!" She shouted, causing a ball of red and blue flame to erupt from her palm. It sailed past Veris before the queen threw her hand up and shouted "Reflega!"

The result was a dome made of transparent hexagonal tiles, just in time to prevent the massive explosion of fire from torching that wasn't one of the red wisp monsters. After the smoke had cleared, the queen dropped the barrier and Veris hurried over to them, a bit stunned by the magical power that the queen had just exhibited.

"So that's why she knew what books to give me." She muttered in a slightly dazed tone. Ryo frowned.

"Were you overdoing it with magic again?" He asked in a concerned tone. Veris waved him off.

"Nowhere near as bad as in the square. Just give me a few moments to get my bearings." She replied. Ryo didn't really buy it, but they had other things to worry about. Garren was keeping an eye down the hallway they'd came from while also calling out for Barkos, who was still nowhere to be found.

"He wasn't in the library when you and I were there, or at least he left before I could find him." Ryo noted to the group.

"My guess is that your friend is either with another group of servants or soldiers. The latter would likely be searching for the king. Either way, I suggest we seek out the king and continue driving these intruders from the castle." The queen suggested, though it sounded more like orders. Everyone else certainly took it as such.

"Alright then, we search for the king. Your highness, where should we search first?" Ryo inquired.

"His private study or the throne room. We'll reach the study first." The queen informed them.

"Alright. Lead the way, your highness." Veris replied. With that, the group set out to find the king and destroy every monster currently roaming the castle corridors. Still, Ryo knew that it couldn't end there. This attack, in conjunction with that vision he'd had earlier, it couldn't be a coincidence.

And he wasn't sure he wanted to know the connection.

**Wow, Radiant Garden is taking a lot longer than I expected. **

**Creativity: Well, we didn't mandate that we **_**had **_**to switch perspectives per chapter. Just that we **_**wouldn't **_**switch until the chapter was done.**

**Author: True. Guess doing Sora chapters at the end of each world is pretty good idea.**

**Creativity: Or just doing it when it won't derail whatever world arc we're in the middle of.**

**Author: Yeah, yeah that makes sense. We'll figure out the details later.**

**Anyway, not much else to add here. Please review, perhaps check out the Discord server, and I'll see ya on Tuesday!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello everyone, and happy Tuesday to you all! I've just finished writing chapter 18 of Limit Breaker and I've skipped lunch so I'm a wee bit out of sorts, but that's okay! There's work to be done and by Kingdom Hearts' name, we're going to get it done!**

**Creativity: Especially with this new schedule we came up with.**

**Author: Right, thanks for reminding me about that! **

**So, this schedule is not an update schedule. It's not even really a schedule so much as it is a personal mandate. I have to complete two chapters of Before: KH before I work on either of my secondary projects, those being Limit Breaker and Venom: Resurgence at the moment. Oh, and there might be one more in future, but that's more like some basic editing.**

**So, like I mentioned last time, the Radiant Garden portion I initially plotted out is taking longer than I expected. Honestly, I think I expected this to happen and am sticking to Ryo's perspective through this one as well. This is where it ends though. Next chapter's gonna be Sora-centric.**

**And with that, I think we've covered everything! Just let me check my notes here… Yep! Now then…**

_**Ahem… **_**I now proudly present chapter 11 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"Press forward! We must clear these monsters from the castle!"

The words of king Ansem were met with a roar of agreement from the castle guard, who continued their offensive against the encroaching monsters. Ryo wanted to snark to the king that they'd been doing exactly that for what felt like hours now, but he had more than enough self-awareness and control to know that was a bad idea. The king was leading the charge, armed with an ornate, yet still practically designed longsword. He was surprisingly skilled with it too. Ryo had no doubt that the king would practice with a blade, but there was more than just practice being displayed by the king's technique, as evidenced the number of monsters he'd felled and the ease of which he did so.

They'd found the king and Barkos with a contingent of castle guards about ten minutes ago. They'd been clearing out a pack of imps when Veris pointed out that Barkos only had his knife. His bow had been left in their room. On the one hand, Ryo wanted to chastise Barkos for leaving his primary weapon in his room, but also recognized that lugging a bow around wasn't quite the same as wearing a knife or sword around. Garren only had his axe because he'd been training before the infestation had been discovered.

Barkos hadn't been useless, however. While his knife wasn't his first choice for combat, he was most certainly capable with it. Aside from that he put his hunter's training to good use, keeping track of where the monsters were and keeping everyone appraised of that information. Of course, that also led to information that, however important, people really didn't want to know.

"I think more have gotten into the castle! Their numbers have gone up!" Barkos called out before he skewered an imp with his knife. Ryo snarled as he cut one down himself and blocked the strike of another. Barkos was right. They're numbers weren't dropping no matter how many they killed.

"There has to be one of those stones or something similar nearby! We need to find it and destroy it!" Ryo shouted as he stabbed an imp through the face.

"_Thundaza!"_

Ryo watched in awe as queen Arryn, who'd been busy using Cure magic to keep everyone able to fight, blasted most of the imps to dust!

"Alright, now that we have room and time to breathe, let's make this quick. Where in Radiant Garden would someone be able to hide one of these 'spawning stones', for lack of a better term?" Ryo asked. The king and queen exchanged glances.

"The most likely place I can think of are the catacombs beneath and adjacent to the castle and town. They have several openings to the surface, and no one ventures into them if it can be avoided." Ansem suggested. Ryo nodded.

"That sounds most likely. Assuming it's like the stone we found, destroying it should also destroy all of the monsters as well." Ryo muttered. King Ansem frowned and stroked his chin.

"Well, we at least have a semi-clear objective. However, we still need a plan. Also, even if the monsters will be destroyed along with this summoning stone, we still cannot afford to leave the castle unguarded, nor can we risk the town and its people." The king pointed out. Ryo frowned. That was an issue he hadn't thought of. With how many monsters they'd encountered, it was safe to say that the castle guards needed to stay here. The queen's magical prowess was better served on the surface to keep the soldiers in fighting shape as well as destroying any large groups of monsters that the soldiers couldn't get to in time or were about to be overrun by. The king's place was with his people, which left only one option. Ryo turned to his friends, who all nodded.

"We'll go." Veris declared. The rest assembled looked surprised.

"It's the best plan. We all can hold our own against those things, we've dealt with a similar situation before, and you all more needed up here than in the catacombs. We just need to get Barkos' bow and arrows, then we can head down there and search for the stone. We find it and destroy it while you all hold the line up here." Ryo explained. The king and queen looked hesitant but raised no objections.

"Very well then, but be careful. The catacombs are avoided for more than a few reasons." The king warned them. Bowing to the king, the four of them hurried through the castle and back to their room, accompanied by a guide. After getting into the room (And clearing out a number of hayans and imps along the way) Barkos retrieved his bow and arrows and they immediately set out for the nearest opening into the catacombs.

The entrance they reached didn't look terribly foreboding, but there was still an undercurrent of unease running through the group as they crossed the threshold and stepped into the catacombs.

As it turned out, the catacombs were more or less a maze of interconnecting ravines, at least in the area they'd entered. If they ran under the town as the king and queen had explained, then there was obviously a network of caves as well. Light wouldn't be an issue if they had to venture into them, but navigation would still be an issue.

As they pressed forward, Ryo's eyes scanned all the nooks and crannies he could see, looking for any sign of an imp or hayan, or even one of those catlike monsters. As he kept searching, Garren began attempting to strike up a conversation. Ryo didn't think now was a good time, but he kept quiet. He remembered that Garren didn't like tight spaces, and the catacombs could certainly qualify. It wasn't full-on claustrophobia, but he imagined that Garren was thinking of several different places he'd rather be right about now.

"Hey Barkos, I've been meaning to ask you something." Garren started, undertones of discomfort in his voice.

"Ask away." Barkos replied as he thumbed the pommel of his knife.

"What have you been studying in the library? I've been meaning to ask for a while, but it keeps slipping me when we meet up." Garren asked. Ryo couldn't see it, but he knew that a smile was creeping across Barkos' face.

"Actually, I started out doing general research of magic and found myself drawn to Runic magic early on. I've spent the last five days or so researching everything I could on Runic magic." Barkos explained with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Wait, I thought you weren't a mage. I know you like studying whatever you can, but why magic?" Veris asked, confused.

"Actually, Runic magic works a bit differently from your magic, which is what is traditionally thought of as magic. Runic magic is all centered around… well, runes. You could look at your magic as a 'dynamic' or 'active' form of magic while Runic magic is a 'static' or 'passive' form, though that terminology isn't exactly perfect. Additionally, a practitioner of Runic magic doesn't need to have pre-existing magical abilities." Barkos explained, going into lecture mode.

"I'm still a bit lost." Garren mumbled, with Veris providing a noise of agreement. Barkos was all too happy to elaborate.

"So, let's say you want to start a fire. With your magic you can just create a fireball, summon a lightning bolt, so on and so forth. With Runic magic on the other hand, you'd have to draw the rune, or combination of runes depending on how complex you want to make it, for fire and then activate it. In other words, Runic magic requires more time and preparation than your magic." Barkos explained. Ryo cocked an eyebrow. He'd never heard of this before.

"Wait, so then what's the point of it? It's not like someone's going to let you just stop and draw your runes in the middle of a fight." Garren pointed out. Barkos tapped the side of his head.

"Ah, but that's in the middle of the fight. You are correct in that using Runic magic in the middle of a fight is likely to get you killed. However, what about before the fight? You could use Runic magic to enhance your armor and weapons in innumerable ways, ranging from increased durability, wards against magic, counter magic, and the list goes on. However, Runic magic sees the most use by craftsmen. How do you think enchanted weapons are made? Correctly weaving runic magic into a weapon or tool during construction can make the enchantment nearly permanent. Though with something a little more disposable, such as an arrow, one can simply add special enchantments to those arrows; enchantments that can do things such as pierce heavy armor, change direction mid-flight, channel various elemental magics, the list is endless." Barkos concluded. Ryo had to admit, the possibilities did seem endless, restricted by one's knowledge of the runes and their own creativity. However, Ryo couldn't help but feel there was more to Runic magic than just that.

"Have you tried any of this magic yet?" Ryo asked offhandedly as they rounded a corner and pressed deeper into the catacombs.

"I've practiced drawing the runes, but I've not yet attempted to actually cast the magic. I'm still learning the technique in that regard. You're supposed to empower the rune with your own energy, but the technique described has been… difficult for me to parse out." Barkos admitted. Ryo wanted to ask more about the technique, both for his own curiosity and for Garren's sake, but he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and quickly jumped behind cover, motioning for everyone else to do the same. The others were quick to respond and soon were all hidden in the small crevices of the catacombs. Ryo peaked out from behind the rock and saw a small troop of imps stalking past the small ravine they were hiding in. As soon as the troop had passed them by, Ryo snuck out and crept toward the opening and peering out. He had to bite his tongue to keep from cursing at the sight. Before him was a good-sized sinkhole that had several intersecting natural stone bridges. At the bottom of the sinkhole was a massive black stone slab that had a large red sigil emblazoned across the front. The moment Ryo's eyes fell upon the sigil he felt a shiver run down his spine. He'd seen it repeated a few times on the carvings in the king's collection, as well as in his vision.

"Alright, I think we found the problem." Veris muttered as she peered over Ryo's shoulder, causing him to start a bit. Garren and Barkos weren't too far behind as they peeked in as well. Ryo forced himself to tear his eyes away from the sigil and began examining the sinkhole in more detail. There were numerous monsters milling about in the sinkhole; some of them pacing about at the bottom and some making their way out of the sinkhole towards the surface.

"Alright… Probably a safe bet that the big rock is the thing that's spawning all of those monsters." Garren guessed under his breath.

"The question is, how do we stop it." Barkos concluded in an equally hushed tone. Ryo frowned as he examined it.

"Veris, how far are you in controlling fire magic?" Ryo asked as he began searching for the quickest way down.

"I'm strong enough for the Fira spell. Why?" She asked, a small hint of concern in her voice.

"I don't think any of our tools will be strong enough to break that stone, so I'm wondering if you could possibly destroy it with an explosion." Ryo explained. Veris frowned.

"I think I'm powerful enough for it, but explosions aren't as easy to create and control as fireballs. If I can do it, I probably only have one shot at it since it'll take most or all of my energy to cast." She answered. Ryo frowned. Odds were too slim on that, and it also meant that Veris had to be extremely conservative with her magic for their one shot. That was too much of a risk.

"Actually, I might have an idea…" Barkos piped up. The rest of the group was all ears.

"It's possible that Runic magic could be used to dispel the gateway, or whatever it's called." Barkos suggested. Ryo frowned.

"What gives you that idea?" Ryo asked.

"When I was studying Runic magic, there was a chapter devoted to wards and talismans, among which was a section referring to seals. It's possible that with the right runes, the gateway could be dispelled or locked permanently. I put a great deal of study into that when I discovered this section with that summoning stone we found previously in mind." Barkos explained. Ryo stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Solid in theory. Do you know the runes we'd need?" Ryo asked before motioning for them to retreat back into the catacombs and out of sight. Better for planning and less chance of being found. Barkos frowned as he began fishing around in his tonic before pulling out what a notebook of some kind out of it.

"I wrote down as many runes as I could, as well as what they translated to as best I could over the last five days. I've done some practicing with combining them so I think I can figure this out. I just need a few minutes to figure out the right combination." Barkos explained, but Ryo frowned as he remembered something.

"Wait, what about empowering the runes? You mentioned you didn't know the technique for that part, only drawing the runes." Ryo reminded him. Barkos nodded.

"Beautiful thing about the runes is that the one who creates the runes doesn't need to be the one that empowers them. Since Veris already has magic, she can empower the rune without having to know the technique, since the technique was developed specifically for people who don't have natural magic abilities." Barkos explained. Ryo nodded.

"Alright, that's one problem down, but I've got another possible one. Assuming the 'gateway' uses Runic magic in some capacity, does that mean that we need a specific combination of runes based on that particular sigil?" Ryo pointed out. Barkos frowned.

"Possibly. Let's see what kind of rune it is, assuming I wrote it down…" Barkos muttered as he began leafing through the notebook. Ryo was surprised by how much Barkos had managed to jot down. He began leafing through it until he eventually he found what he was looking for.

"I think I got it… Strange… this rune is for 'rage'. Why would the rage rune be used for some form of summoning gate?" Barkos pondered aloud. Ryo frowned. That didn't sound quite right to him.

"Can I see that for a second?" He asked. Barkos seemed confused but permitted it. Ryo took the notebook and began leafing through it. Thankfully, Barkos had organized the book by alphabetical common, so he was able to find what he was looking for with much greater ease. And find it he did.

"Barkos, take a look at this." He told his friend, motioning for him to look at one of the runes. It was significantly smaller than the others, as well as broken up.

"This is the rune for 'direction'." Barkos stated. Ryo nodded.

"Exactly. I saw that sigil on a few of the carvings that the king keeps in his collection and the rage rune didn't quite match up. It was close, but not quite. Now, give me a second…" Ryo muttered before flipping through the book before finding a different page.

"Look at the 'wrath' rune. See that?" Ryo instructed as he pointed to the rune in question. Barkos peered at it and his eyes widened.

"Yeah, that's a perfect match! Wait, what does the direction rune have to do with the wrath rune?" Barkos asked. Ryo gestured to the run again.

"If you look carefully, the wrath rune is actually the rage rune with the direction rune attached to it. See?" Ryo pointed out. Barkos slapped his head.

"Of course! I thought it was strange that some of the translations were arbitrarily a string of runes or a single rune!" Barkos exclaimed, though he remembered to keep his voice down.

"Alright, that's great and all, but how exactly does that help us?" Garren asked with a hint of impatience. Barkos swiped a finger to his mouth to remind Garren to keep quiet before explaining.

"It could be nothing, but it's possible that using a spell intended for rage instead of wrath could have gone disastrously. I'll give you examples on that afterwards. For now, give me time to work out the runes." Barkos replied before ripping out a sheet of paper from his notebook and getting to work. While he drew, disposed of and redrew the runes, the rest of the group started trying to come up with a plan of attack.

"Alright, we're just four against an endlessly replenishing army so we'll need to take out the gateway as quickly as possible. It's possible that the army will vanish once the gateway is closed, but we gotta assume they won't, and we'll have to fight our way out." Ryo muttered as he pondered the situation.

"It's too high to jump in for a surprise attack. We'll have to work our way close enough to the ground to get in there. Luckily only the hayans can fly, but it'll still be pretty easy to overwhelm us if we're spotted too early. Barkos and I both have ranged options, but I need to conserve magic for in case the plan fails, and we need to try blowing it up." Veris added. Ryo closed his eyes as he thought.

"How much magic do you think it would take to make an explosion powerful enough to take out that rock, bare minimum?" He asked. Veris frowned.

"I could probably get away with a couple of Fira spells and still have enough for a large enough explosion. It'll also be harder depending on how far I am away from the blast. Why?" Veris responded. Ryo stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"It's possible that we could create a distraction by knocking a few rocks loose. However, that means that we'll be spending magic on a distraction, rather than saving it for taking out monsters when the fighting starts…" Ryo considered.

"Bet this would have been solved already if we'd been able to bring along queen Arryn. One big explosion and problem solved." Garren muttered. Ryo couldn't disagree, but the queen's place was with her people. They had to solve this on their own.

"I think we can manage. Oh, I've got the runes worked out by the way. At least, I think I do." Barkos chimed in.

"Alright. So, we just need to get the runes onto the that thing and give them a charge, then they do the rest. Hopefully, at least." Ryo replied. Barkos nodded in affirmation.

"Of course, the trick will be getting there." Veris muttered. It was true that they didn't have a real plan yet. They had information, but nothing even close to concrete. It didn't help that they were kind of on the clock.

"Alright. So first we need to…" Barkos started before falling deathly silent. His eyes looking out of the small alcove they'd been using to prepare. Ryo slowly turned his head to see a small troop of imps was marching past them. There were a few moments of silence as they prayed to not get seen, then they felt as if ice had been dumped down their spine when they heard a few small rocks fell behind them. The imps turned to see them.

"Of course…" Ryo muttered before all hell broke loose. Ryo and Garren both leapt forward with weapons drawn and began cutting their way through the monsters, who had begun screeching bloody murder just before they started getting cut down. Of course, the noise was met immediately met with responses from just about every monster in the sinkhole.

"Well, I guess we're improvising!" Ryo shouted angrily as he began slashing his way towards the sinkhole with the group in tow. After they managed to get into said sinkhole, they began battling their way across the stone bridges towards the gateway. Ryo snarled as he stabbed through three of them at once as they pressed forward. He could see a few arrows flying out of his field of vision and could hear the distinct _twang _of Barkos' bow, as well as the roaring battle cries of Garren as he kept monsters off their rear.

As they neared the final bridge, Ryo's mind was a blur of stress, instinct and anger. Everything had fallen apart so spectacularly in just a few seconds and now they were wading through wave after wave of monsters because of a relatively small amount of bad luck! More infuriating was the fact that they only had two solutions that, even put together, didn't constitute even a half-measure! They were completely gambling here! Maybe they should have sent someone back for the queen. At least then they'd _know _if they had a chance in the abyss!

Ryo's thoughts were interrupted when they reached the bottom and the number of monsters that were trying to maul them grew significantly.

"Keep going! We're almost there!" Garren shouted from the rear, though he was rapidly carving his way to the front. The kept pressing forward, gaining ground little by little. Ryo turned to Barkos, who had retrieved the page that the runes were written on and was handing it to Veris when something started to go wrong. Again.

Ryo had been in the midst of slashing through another cat monster when the gateway let out a harsh, droning noise and the sigil on the front began to glow more intensely. Suddenly, many of the monsters that were currently in the sinkhole began to glow more intensely as well before they all collapsed in on themselves and flew back into the massive sigil! The group was dumbfounded as they watched the strange phenomenon continue before most of the sinkhole had been emptied. Then the ground began to rumble and shake. Harsh red energy began to burst from the sigil before there was a loud _BOOM _and something was spat out of the gateway. And it was horrendous.

Standing before them was a twelve foot tall monstrosity that vaguely resembled a human being. Its rough, rocklike torso was carved away to create a massive gap in its stomach which contained a roiling mass of red energy, held in place by what looked disturbingly like rocky teeth. Its head was small, with two large red cracks for eyes. Its mismatched limbs looked like a rough-hewn blade and a club respectively, with no fingers in sight and it stood on four legs. The remaining monster, which consisted mostly of hayans with a small handful of imps left over all flocked to the new creature that turned its gaze upon them and let out a rumbling roar. The sound itself wasn't very loud, but it caused the sinkhole to shake and their bones to rattle.

_~~~Cue Vim and Vigor~~~_

"Oh, that's just not fair!" Garren shouted angrily as the creature stomped towards them, club limb held aloft to flatten them! Ryo rushed out of the way before cursing as he saw several of the remaining imps charging towards him. Readying his blade, Ryo began cutting them down, hoping that his friends could handle the rest. He saw a flash of platinum blonde hair making a break for the gateway out of the corner of his eye, though it looked like the hayans weren't going to stand for that and gave chase.

"Barkos! Distract the hayans!" Ryo shouted as he whirled around, slashing another imp down before he realized that the giant had its sights set on him and began running away from the gate, trying to give Veris an opening. The giant rumbled and gave chase, lumbering towards Ryo as it reared black its blade arm to sweep at him.

After narrowly dodging the attack, Ryo turned to see how Veris was doing. She was just about there, but the hayans had regrouped and formed a blockade between her and the gateway that they couldn't break through. Worse still, the giant took notice of this and lumbered back towards it, both arms poised to strike. Veris did the sensible thing and retreated before the monster could attack. However, that still led to another problem. The giant looked down at the hayans and let out a grumbling roar before the energy in its torso began to glow with more intensity. The hayans were sucked in and the monster doubled over for a few moments before suddenly snapped backwards, causing what looked like a single hayan to emerge. However, it was noticeably different. It was larger for one, and it was more elaborately designed. It swung back and forth, as if examining each member of the group before it seemingly settled on Garren. Garren readied his axe as the mask shot towards him. However, his swing missed, and the mask suddenly spun around and slammed into Garren's face! He let out a yell of surprise and pain before red energy erupted from the eyes and mouth of the mask and an eerie red glow surrounded Garren's body. He looked up and turned his gaze to Ryo. There was a brief pause as everyone looked at what had transpired with horror before Garren wordlessly began charging towards Ryo, clearing the distance between them with a single leap! Ryo leapt to the side as Garren's axe slammed down where he'd just been standing, leaving a massive crack in the ground.

Ryo barely had a moment to collect himself when Garren swung again, narrowly failing at relieving Ryo of his head. Ryo desperately raised his blade as he saw the next strike incoming and managed to direct the strike away from him. Whatever that new mask monster was, it had made Garren much stronger and faster than normal and was puppeteering him to keep Ryo's attention away from the giant, who was now trying to turn Veris and Barkos into bloody smears on the ground.

Ryo's fighting style didn't involve a lot of defence; thus, he was very ill equipped for this fight. Additionally, he couldn't risk permanently injuring or killing Garren and that cut down his offensive options considerably.

Snarling angrily, Ryo performed several feint strikes that Garren completely ignored, all except for those directed at his face. Nothing Ryo didn't suspect already. To free Garren, he had to get that damn mask off. However, he didn't know how to do that without Garren and/or himself getting injured.

"Damn it, why can't things ever be simple?!" Ryo shouted as he avoided another axe strike and kneed Garren in the stomach before shoving him back. Unfortunately, Garren wasn't down for long as he stood back up and hefted his axe for a two handed strike. Ryo grit his teeth. He had to get Garren out of commission if they were going to make any headway in this damned mission. That meant getting that mask off, and Ryo could only see one way of doing that. It was risky. Foolishly so, really, but he didn't see any other way.

"Garren, in the event I screw this up, I'm really sorry." Ryo muttered as he widened his stance and readied his blade, glaring into the eyes of the mask possessing his friend. Garren straightened up and hefted the axe and rushed forward, axe gripped in both hands for a vertical strike. Once the axe was descending, Ryo suddenly surged forward, left hand releasing its grip in the blade and pushing Garren's strike to the side, narrowly missing Ryo's shoulder. From there, Ryo brought the blade up and struck the mask with the pommel of his sword, causing Garren to back up in surprise. Ryo quickly swung his blade aloft, gripping the handle in both hands and brought it down in a diagonal strike. There was silence for a moment before the mask began to fall in half, crumbling away and finally vanishing in a red burst. Garren collapsed to his knees, his face pale and eyes wide before he fell face down. Luckily, there wasn't a mark on his face. Ryo took a deep, shaky breath, muttering thanks that he'd executed the cut without hurting Garren.

However, there was still the problem of the giant, which currently had Barkos and Veris cornered. Ryo turned and made a run for the gateway, knowing that the giant was intent on keeping them away from it. As he ran, he noticed that Veris still had the runes clutched tightly in her hand, the other hand raised, flames flickering in her hands. Ryo gritted his teeth with frustration.

"_Too many mistakes were made before we came down here." _He growled in his head before he reached the gate and slashed it with his sword. To no one's surprise, the blade didn't do anything to it. However, it did get the giant's attention, who immediately forgot about Veris and Barkos and start heading towards Ryo. Ryo made a run towards the pathway they'd used to reach the bottom of the sinkhole, figuring that the way to fell this giant lay on higher ground. Meanwhile, Veris seized on the opening and made a run for the gateway! Unfortunately, the giant had been in the midst of a pivot and his stray arm struck Veris and sent her tumbling away, rune page discarded on the ground. Ryo cursed as he kept ascending higher but reminded himself that _he _was the giant's target and was in much more danger than Veris or Barkos right now.

The giant reared back its blade arm and thrust it forward, trying to crush Ryo against the wall like an insect. However, Ryo had managed to stop himself before the blade struck and realized that the giant limb was now stuck in the rock! He quickly leapt atop the limb and began sprinting down its length towards the giant's head, blade held out to his side as he let out a wild battle cry, leaping from the end of its arm and spinning the blade into a reverse grip and driving it into the giant's left eye! The giant recoiled in apparent pain and surprise, staggering back and tripping backwards. It tumbled down to the ground and Ryo leapt towards the gate just before the giant finished falling back to earth! After rolling to break his fall, he sprinted for the gate, seizing the rune page and slamming it against the gateway! several tiny purple sparks emerged from his hand, causing the runes to glow purple before there was a bright flash and a pulse that sent Ryo tumbling backwards. Energy poured forth from the Rune before the massive red sigil began to similarly glow purple before it all faded, leaving only the stone slab. However, that one began to crumble, breaking down into tiny grains of ash-colored sand.

The giant let out on last rumble before the energy core in its chest collapsed and burst in a pulse of red, taking the rest of the giant with it.

Ryo had managed to get up on one knee but was panting exhaustedly. His sword lay on the ground where the giant's head had been. He tried to rise, but instead fell back on his rear, trying to recover.

"We did it…" Barkos mumbled as he slowly rose. He was the least exhausted and damaged of all of them there, but he still had several small injuries. After several minutes, Ryo managed to climb to his feet and went over to Garren, who was still unconscious. Veris had managed to rise but had a limp and possible concussion. Barkos hurried over and helped Ryo pick up Garren so that the group could get out of this damn place.

The journey out was much slower than the journey in, but the journey got much easier when they happened across a search party that had been sent for them. The knights relieved Barkos and Ryo of Garren's unconscious form and led the out of the catacombs and into the bright, sunny sky. It was there that Ryo's will finally gave out and he collapsed unconscious.

_Three days later…_

The group was all lying in the medical ward of the castle and they were all starting to go a bit stir-crazy because of it. Veris had shaken off the concussion after two days and Garren had recovered from whatever that mask thing had done to him. He had described his experience as being trapped in a red mist, filled with inexplicable anger and being completely unable to move. There was a shakiness to his voice whenever he talked about the experience.

Barkos had been released a while back, but he stuck with his friends, requesting that books be brought to him from the library so he could continue studying. After they'd explained how they'd destroyed the gate, the queen had taken to providing tutoring in magic for both Veris and Barkos, both by herself and from a selection of the castle mages. Today though, had been requested by Garren, Veris and Barkos for complete privacy, saying that they needed to have a private conversation among the group.

Everyone had woken up a little late and they were all looking at Ryo. In fact, staring was all that had been happening for all of about ten, maybe fifteen minutes before Veris finally took a deep breath and began.

"I think we need to have a talk." She stated. Ryo closed his eyes and took a deep breath of his own.

"I guess we do." He replied. There was more silence for several agonizing moments before Barkos finally began.

"All three of us have noticed that your swordsmanship is startlingly advanced for someone of your… well, _our _age. I can't speak for Veris or Garren, but I kept quiet out of respect for your privacy, since you've always been very cagey about your past. However, after all the insanity we've been through, I don't think we can ignore this anymore." Barkos started. Ryo nodded silently.

"You managed to cut that mask right off of Garren's face without scratching him, you managed to run the length of the Golem's arm and stab it in the eye before leaping to safety after it collapsed, grabbed the rune page mid-run and then activate it on the gateway. Ignoring that last part, people aren't able to just do that unless they've had plenty of training." Barkos continued. Ryo didn't respond, so Veris took over.

"And then there's the rune. Barkos doesn't know the technique and I know I didn't charge the thing, so it had to have been you. That means either you _do _know the charging technique, or you have magic." Veris concluded. Ryo scowled.

"I _had _magic." He corrected bitterly, before running his hand through his hair.

"Or I still do, but I can't… Why is this so complicated?" He muttered to himself before taking a deep breath. The others watched him confusedly as he took a few moments to collect himself.

"I've been able to use magic since I was little, and I spent basically my whole life learning about it and training to use it. Then one day, something went wrong… there was a fight and…" Ryo continued before his voice caught. There was a long tense pause before he managed to keep going.

"I was backed into a corner and suddenly I felt my magic surge, then I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I was in the middle of nowhere, my clothes were reduced to rags and my magic… I can't use it anymore. It's still there; I can feel that much. But when I try to use it, the strain… the strain is too much. It's always there, but it's always out of reach." He concluded. They could all see the strain in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

"I can't imagine… I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have…" Veris started, but Ryo waved her down.

"Don't. You were right about needing to know more after that stunt I pulled with the Golem. On that note, that's where my swordsmanship comes from. The way I was taught magic approached it as equal parts spell casting and martial arts. I could probably teach you some of the basics, if you're interested." Ryo replied. He then turned to Barkos.

"Incidentally, that's how I knew about the runes, though I didn't know about their magical application. My instructor taught us how to translate old texts as part of training." Ryo explained to the intellectual.

The group looked a bit uncertain about what Ryo had shared, and he couldn't blame them. He could also still see hints of guilt on their faces, but he ignored it. He was going to have to explain sooner or later and getting it out into the open could open a few doors in the future.

"Look, I know it's a bit to take in, and if you all need some time to talk about it, I get that. But can we keep it between ourselves? I don't like talking about it very much." Ryo requested. The group all nodded, and Ryo took a deep breath before closing his eyes.

"I just need a few minutes…" He said quietly as he felt the well of emotion from explaining what happened slowly ebb away. In the absence of it he felt strangely at peace, if not a bit drained. Still, after everything that had happened, the momentary respite he now enjoyed thanks to getting 'the conversation' out of the way felt almost divine. Maybe this was the first step on the path to unwinding himself. Maybe, just maybe, he was on his way to getting his power back.

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**AND IT'S DONE! OH MY KINGDOM HEARTS THIS ONE TOOK SO MUCH LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE!**

**Creativity: THE PAIN! OH KINGDOM HEARTS, STOP THE PAIN!**

**Author: Seriously, I did NOT think that the Radiant Garden arc was going to take this long! Collectively, I'm estimating 12 to 13 THOUSAND words went into it over three chapters, the majority of which are in this chapter because I was determined to wrap it up here.**

**So, not sure what it's going to look like at the moment, but we're probably going to do a Sora two-parter since I've got more than a few ideas of what to do there.**

**Creativity: AMPUTATE THEM! THE PAIN MUST END!**

**Author: Ignore him, he's just tired.**

**Anyway, not really much else to say here, other than PLEASE LET THE NEXT ONE NOT TAKE THIS LONG!**

**Hope you enjoyed, please review, hope to see you on Discord and see ya on Saturday!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello everyone, and happy Saturday! **

**Creativity: Please let this be short, please let this be short…**

**Author: Don't worry, Sora chapters are typically much easier to manage. They don't get out of control like chapter 11 did… **_**shudder…**_

**Anyway, we're a few chapters overdue to reunite with keyboy so we'll be writing two chapters for him. We'll probably get better flow that way. **

**Creativity: Might do to give Sora someone to talk to. Having him just talk to thin air and a flying rock gets boring after a while, and the World Voice isn't exactly a conversationalist.**

**Author: I'll consider it. For now, let's check out some of the reviews!**

**CeleneTheAngel: Been thinking more since initial communications, and now I do agree that in broad strokes, it is pretty similar to a few other backstories, but again, in broad strokes. And no, the X-Blade does not exist at this point in the timeline I'm making, so it is impossible for Ryo to be a keyblade wielder. Also, I can sort of see where you're coming from in terms of 'is he in a cult?' and I'm gonna keep quiet on that front. All will be revealed soon enough...**

**And that's the reviews taken care of! Thanks for writing in! Now then, here's the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Alright! Now that we've got all that out of the way, we can begin the chapter proper! I now proudly present chapter 12 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"…And then we left to go find Riku and the King. Don't remember much of what happened after that. We were walking along a pathway and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up from a nap inside this weird pod. Crazy, right?"

Sora wasn't sure how much time had passed since those weird monsters had shown up, but he guessed it had been quite a bit, considering he'd just finished recounting the entirety of his first journey as a keyblade wielder. After the World Voice warned him that he was now on the clock because of those weird monsters, he'd immediately entered a different section of the maze from that central courtyard. Thankfully, he could apparently return to that courtyard as well as the previous two trial locations, using that new ability he'd gotten from his most recent trial.

It had been unsettlingly quiet ever since he'd left the central courtyard, which was saying something in this strange world. Ever since he arrived here, the only consistent noises Sora had heard were his own feet on the ground, and the strange and ethereal sound of his guide stone in motion. As tense as they were, the trials of combat he'd taken as well as that apparently unforeseen battle with those yellow creatures had provided a brief respite from the unease that the silent world instilled in him.

"I wonder what Riku would think of this place. It's weird just how much it's like the Dark Realm, but also… not." Sora noted aloud to the guide stone, which didn't visible react. It was so strange how the stone appeared so alive, yet not. Almost like the world they were located in.

"Wonder if that's a coincidence." He muttered as he rounded another corner and leapt in the air, whooping with elation. He'd found the third quarter of the obelisk! He just needed to clear this trial, then he'd have only one more obelisk fragment to track down. Then he'd be done with this stupid maze!

As Sora crossed the threshold into the courtyard and approached the obelisk fragment, the World Voice began to speak once more.

"…_Another trial lies before you… Do you accept it…?"_

Sora summoned the keyblade in affirmation and sank into his battle stance. A pool of dark energy appeared before him, rolling and spinning as something began to emerge from its opaque depths. The figure appeared similar to the one he'd faced during his previous trial; similar in appearance to a Neoshadow Heartless, though the head appendages were absent this time. The purple patterning was also different from the last one. The entity watched Sora impassively for a moment before it floated up into the air and crossed its arms in front of its body before throwing them out to the side in a pulse of dark energy! Its body was now wrapped in a purple/black aura, with energies snapping out from its body like arcs of electricity, fizzling and sparking whenever they came into contact with the ground.

Sora stared down his foe for a few seconds before leaping back and launching a pair of Fire spells at the entity. The results weren't quite what Sora was expecting. The entity merely outstretched one of its hands, allowing the fireballs to impact its hand. The fire broke apart upon contact with the entity's palm, splitting into small rays of Light and Darkness. The rays of light went flying off in random directions before vanishing while the Darkness recollected in the entity's other hand, which it then thrust forward, launching a ball of dark energy straight back at Sora!

Sora yelped as he rolled out of the way before charging towards the entity, who began launching bursts of Dark energy at Sora in salvos, changing up the pattern from broad waves, concentrated barrages and large single blasts. Sora dodged or deflected the blasts away before leaping forward and attacking the entity head on. Unfortunately, it was apparently able to also summon barriers of some kind that prevented his strikes from landing. They weren't like the Barrier or Reflect spells in form, being more akin to a dark vortex, but functionally they were similar.

Sora grunted as he tried once again to land a strike, but the barrier kept catching him. However, it appeared that the entity could only summon the barriers near its hands, or possibly the arms. After all, it kept adjusting its posture to put its arms in the way of his attacks. Now he just needed to find a way around that.

"_And I can't use magic since it has that trick to send it back at me… Wait, that's it!" _

Sora leapt back and launched three Fire spells before charging towards the entity, who was busy creating another one of those Dark energy balls using the fireballs. Sora readied his keyblade to strike and leapt forward, just as the entity was preparing to strike! Sora swung his keyblade around as hard as he could, landing a strike right on the arm holding the ball of Darkness, causing it to suddenly sputter and burst! Sora was thrown to the side, but the entity was even more disoriented than Sora, now just hovering in the air and looked completely dazed. Sora seized the opening and charged forward, letting loose with a flurry of blows before the entity recovered and force Sora back with a pulse of Dark energy. As Sora recovered, he turned to face the entity again, which now had to large spheres of Darkness in its hands. Sora readied his keyblade as the entity thrust its right hand forward, launching a massive beam of Dark energy at Sora, who yelped and rolled sideways to safety. Knowing that another beam would be following not long after, Sora sprang into another roll, narrowly avoiding the attack before he seized on the brief opening to charge forward and deliver a hard slash to the entity's side, causing it to stagger and giving Sora another opening. Sora grinned. It was time to see how well one of his new tricks worked. Sora reared back his left hand and thrust it forward, causing the vambrace on his arm to flash. Several light-blue crystals appeared around Sora in the form of a cylinder in a rather intricate pattern. Sora then thrust Kingdom Key forward, launching a golden beam into one of the crystals, causing it to refract into all the other crystals. Those crystals instantly began glowing gold and began to fire a storm of gold bolts outwards in all directions! The entity was pelted with blasts, being unable to block every area on its body at once, and it was swiftly overwhelmed. It collapsed to the ground as the crystals around Sora faded and he sank back into his battle stance. The entity simply stood up and stared at Sora for a few moments before the entity nodded.

"…_You have passed the third trial… well done…"_

Sora watched as a ball of purple energy emerged from the entity and flew to the vambrace. This time, the change was a lot more subtle, with small black claws emerging from the end of the vambrace and extending a bit over Sora's hand, as well as several purple lines appearing on the dark material of the armor piece. Sora looked it over a few times, wondering how this one worked before the entity held out its hand. The strange rays of Light that Sora had seen before suddenly rematerialized and began to collect in its hand, mixing with Darkness to create a strange orb that the entity then launched at Sora! Sora instinctively raised Kingdom Key in front of him, though for some reason he held it point first instead of sideways, while he extended his left hand behind him. The moment the sphere came into contact with the keyblade, it split into rays of Light and Darkness once more. The rays of Darkness flew off into the ether while the rays of light recollected in Sora's left hand, forming a sphere of light! Sora then threw the sphere back at the entity, which batted it aside effortlessly. With that, a dark portal opened beneath the entity and it sank through. The portal closed shortly afterwards, and the obelisk fragment began to rumble before it sank into the floor. Sora grinned as he turned around to head back into the maze.

"Just one more to go." He said before the ground began to shake violently. Sora was sent tumbling to all fours as the world quaked. The normal purple/black sky had been overcome with dark clouds and crackling lightning.

"That's probably not good…" Sora muttered once the tremors stopped. He needed to get back to the central courtyard.

"Well, as good a time as any to test this." Sora decided as he held up his left arm again. It began to glow as several spheres of purple energy floated up from the sigil inlayed into the vambrace. They were about the size of marbles and were arranged in a strange pattern. Not soon after, several purple lines of energy began to create an outline that looked rather familiar to Sora. It was a broad, overhead view of everywhere he'd been and unlocked one of those obelisks, with said obelisks being marked with a sphere. After locating the central courtyard of the maze, Sora touched the sphere experimentally. The effect wasn't quite what Sora was expecting. Dark energy began to swirl around him before shooting up into the sky!

"Woah, what's going on here?!" Sora exclaimed as he wildly spun about, trying to figure out what was happening before suddenly the Darkness cleared, revealing that Sora had been teleported back to the central courtyard.

"So that's how it works. Good to know." Sora muttered after checking his surroundings. The sky continued to rumble before that strange lightning from before began to rapidly strike the ground throughout the courtyard, as well as other locations outside the maze. Sora summoned Kingdom Key in anticipation of what had previously followed the lightning. Sure enough, a multitude of monsters emerged from the post-strike smoke. When the smoke cleared, he was faced with the same two varieties of monster he'd faced before, plus two that looked startlingly similar to mask creatures and bipedal monsters he'd seen in those visions; Hayans and imps he believed they were called. The main difference between them was the yellow color in place of red, though there were a few other subtle differences. The body language was different, for one. The red ones always looked like they were enraged, pacing about in fury. These yellow ones were a lot more… twitchy, their fingers flexing and contorting in a way that suggested pain and discomfort. And then there was the sound they made. While the red ones had a deeper, more menacing sound that intimidated, the yellow ones had a high-pitched shriek that sent shivers down the spine. Sora raised his keyblade and prepared for battle as the creatures shrieked and advanced.

Sora realized quite quickly that even if he'd been in top form before he'd arrived in this strange world, this group would still have proven to be quite a challenge. Now though, with most of his previous strength missing, he didn't have much of a chance. He needed to get some distance and thin out their numbers as best he could before he could engage them closer. The mask ones were probably weaker and could be taken out with probably one fire spell apiece. Plus, he could probably use the vambrace if he found himself surrounded. Assuming it had enough charge, at least. He didn't know how much using the omnidirectional attack, coupled with the teleportation had drained.

Sora leapt onto a wall and propelled himself off of it, casting a couple of Fire spells that destroyed the masks as he'd anticipated before he checked the vambrace. The crystal layer was still pretty dull, even more than the first time he'd used the omnidirectional attack.

"Okay, options are looking even worse now!" Sora exclaimed as he landed and dodged as one of the yellow imps tried to slash him. Seeing an opening, he took it out with one slash before cutting down a few more. From there, he retreated back, using a few more Fire spells to keep the hayans away from him. Unfortunately, the horde of monsters quickly figured out how to cut him off, and Sora found himself in a corner of the maze and completely surrounded.

"Oh, come on! If that wolf is waiting for the dramatic entrance, now's the time!" Sora shouted as he readied his keyblade. However, just as the monsters were about to close in for the kill, A massive pillar of Dark energy erupted in the courtyard, just behind the horde. Sora couldn't see from behind the pack of creatures, but it certainly got their attention. Suddenly, several more pillars of Darkness erupted from beneath several of the monsters' feet, destroying them instantly! Now having a clearer field of vision, Sora could see what looked like a human standing behind the horde. They were shrouded in a tatter gray cloak and covered from head to toe in inky-black bandages like a mummy. Only one of their eyes was visible, and it was rather unsettling to Sora. It had black a sclera and purple iris, with a pupil the same shade of black as the sclera. Sora wasn't even sure if there was any skin around the eyes, only a dark void.

The figure's eye glanced back and forth between the monsters before it suddenly raised its right hand into the air, an orb of Dark energy appearing in the bandaged palm before it was slammed into the ground! Explosions of Dark energy began to erupt from the ground in sequence, heading for the monsters!

Pandemonium ensued, with the horde dropping everything to attack the newcomer. Sora took the opportunity to rush forward and start cutting down monsters now that they had their backs turned. Though he wasn't sure how much he was contributing. The newcomer was virtually unstoppable! They swung their hands left and right, launching a variety of Dark energy blasts that tore through the invaders like they were made of tissue paper!

It wasn't long before all of the monsters were dealt with and the figure relaxed. Sora dropped out of his battle stance, but he didn't dismiss his keyblade. For all he knew, there could be more monsters coming, or the newcomer could attack him.

Said newcomer turned to Sora, eyeing him carefully for a long moment before they spoke.

"I didn't intend to reveal myself to you so soon, but time is running short. The enemy will regroup soon and continue their siege until the World has fallen or the keybearer has finished undoing the shackles." The figure stated. Their voice had a strange reverb to it, almost as if it was echoing about within their own body.

"What are they, though? And why are they so dangerous?" Sora questioned. The figure pointed towards the final corridor of the labyrinth that Sora had yet to explore.

"To understand that, you must continue to undo the shackles. Only by the keyblade's power may you unlock the knowledge of what has long since happened, and what may yet happen." The figure replied before walking up beside Sora. Their footsteps made noise, but it was very subtle. In fact, it was almost non-existent.

"Circumstances force me to accompany you for the remainder of your time in this world to ensure both your continued existence, as well as my own and that of this world. For should this world fall, calamity will follow for all worlds." The entity declared ominously. Sora frowned before grinning a bit.

"Eh, I've saved the worlds twice. One more shouldn't hurt." He replied as he laced his fingers together behind his head before he started heading back into the maze, accompanied by his new traveling companion.

"Oh wait! I don't know your name." Sora replied.

"I was never given a name, but as time wore on, I eventually settled on referring to myself as Archive." The being, Archive replied. Sora cocked his head to the side a little with a confused expression, then shrugged.

"Well, it's good to meet you Archive." Sora greeted. He was still a little weirded out by this whole world and was immensely curious about Archive's connection to it, but he didn't think he'd get it out of him right away. One thing was for sure though; he was much happier to have someone to talk to that would actually talk back.

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**And that's where we'll leave it for today! Sora has acquired a new ability and a new travelling companion in Archive! Just who is this mysterious stranger?**

**Creativity: Well, He's…**

**Author: NO SPOILERS!**

**Anyway, I realized a little while back that having Sora on his own, while a bit of an interesting dynamic since he's normally got a few people with him, makes it harder to write his chapters. At least, it is for me. So, I've brought in Archive! We'll be delving into who and what he is later. For now, he's basically Dark Donald in terms of a party role. **

**Creativity: Man, I wish we were better at art. I'd love to have some drawings of half the stuff we think up. **

**Author: Maybe I'll take some art classes, see if anything comes out of that.**

**Anyway, I think we'll leave it there for today! I hope you all enjoyed, please review, maybe pop into Discord and I'll see ya on Tuesday!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Good day to you all! I hope this Tuesday is treating you all well! **

**Creativity: Oh joy of joys~~~**

**Author: Don't mind him. He's still celebrating the fact that set three of Resurgence is ready for publication. Of course, by the time this comes out, we may have already published set four, so like I said, don't mind him.**

**So, before we go any further, lets take a look at the reviews: **

**CeleneTheAngel: Can I just say that I really appreciate all the reviews? I mean it. But on to the response proper. I can't go in depth here, but I do go in depth with more of this stuff in future. The beginning of this story (And yes, the first twenty chapters can be considered a beginning) have much more personal stakes while setting up for the bigger stuff later.**

**Now then, where did we leave off last time… Oh, right! We had jumped back to Sora and introduced him to the mysterious denizen of the mysterious world Sora is currently trapped in. A mysterious figure named Archive.**

**Creativity: Anyone who wants to try drawing him, please refer a link to us so we can see it ourselves. **

**Author: Yeah, we kinda, sorta, REALLY suck at drawing.**

**Coming back to Archive, our original concept for him actually involved him wielding dual scimitars, since I think scimitars are AWESOME, but ultimately decided to cut that in favor of him being purely magic focused. As much as I miss the scimitar concept, I think cutting them was the right call.**

**Creativity: Well, some behind the scenes stuff is nice and all, but we should probably…**

**Author: Ah, yes. Yes, we should.**

**Now then… **_**ahem…**_** I now proudly present chapter 13 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

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There was one thing that Sora always disliked, ever since he was young. Even before Xehanort, even before he went to war with the original Organization XIII, even before the first Heartless crisis that stripped him of his friends and home, there was one thing that Sora couldn't stand: Awkward silences. Sora HATED awkward silences. He always had, and probably always would.

So, it came as no surprise that he found that his latest travelling companion, an apparent resident of this strange dark world named Archive, was probably his least favorite travelling companion to date. Archive hadn't said a word since they had stepped into the labyrinth once more to find the last obelisk fragment. Or rather, so Sora could find it with Archive deciding to act as a bodyguard for when those yellow monsters returned.

Either way, the silence had been driving Sora mad for a little while now, but he had the feeling that Archive wasn't much of a talker, so he kept his mouth shut. However, the silence was really starting to get to him. At least with the guide stone he could talk as much as he wanted, even if it didn't talk back. Archive on the other hand, didn't seem to have any interest in talking. Still, the silence was becoming unbearable and Sora knew he had to say _something_ before he finally snapped and said or did something stupid. After some consideration, he finally settled on what he hoped would be a good conversation starter.

"So, can you tell me anything about this world? The closest thing I've seen to it is the Dark Realm, but even that doesn't quite fit." Sora asked. Archive made a 'hmm' noise before answering.

"This world existed long before the One World split into many. It comes from a time when the Light was harsher, before the Darkness was… tainted. It serves as a refuge for those from a time long past, who have no place in the worlds outside. At least, for now." Archive responded. Sora cocked his head a bit.

"Wait, you mean like that wolf, and those other two I fought at those obelisk pieces?" Sora inquired. Archive nodded.

"Indeed. The two you fought during your trials are beings from the Darkness. They were once much more numerous, but now those two are the only ones I am aware of that still exist. If they were to leave this world and return to the Dark Realm, they'd find only ruin and sorrow." Archive explained, though that just left Sora even more confused.

"Wait, you said they're from the Dark Realm? I thought the only things that live there are…" Sora started, only for Archive to interrupted.

"The beings your kind refer to as the Heartless? Not so. Those two individuals predate the Heartless by more than a few centuries. Relatively speaking, the Pureblood Heartless are a rather recent phenomenon, though they are true residents of the Dark Realm, unlike the Emblem Heartless." Archive continued. Sora felt like he was in a classroom with Archive giving him a history lecture. Then he remembered something.

"Wait, what about that wolf thing? It looks pretty similar to those two. Is it not like them? And what about you?" Sora questioned further. Archive shook his head.

"The wolf and I are something different altogether. The wolf is unique among us all in that it can leave this place and traverse the space between worlds without fear. In truth, it only returned when the time came to bring you here." Archive explained. Sora frowned.

"And why exactly am I here?" Sora pressed.

"This world is bound; shackled and restrained and has been since I first arrived here. However, it can no longer remain so. Ancient forces are at work in the worlds and change approaches. This world must be set free if the realm of Light is to survive and the realm of Darkness to be set right." Archive answered. Now Sora was even more confused.

"Wait, what do mean set right? And what are these 'forces' you mentioned?"

Archive shook his head.

"Unfortunately, you aren't ready for that knowledge. However, when the shackles have been undone, you will be ready. You already have attained knowledge from undoing several of the shackles. This next trial will the last within this labyrinth, and success will be met with one last power. Then you must complete the task and undo the shackles and free this world." Archive finished. Sora had a feeling that discussion was about to end there, but he thought of one more question.

"What about those yellow monsters? They kind of look like the monsters in those visions I got from the obelisk."

Archive let out a huff that indicated he wasn't very fond of them.

"They are derived from pain and suffering, similar in some ways to the Unversed your predecessors did battle with. They feed on pain of living things, gaining strength and multiplying as a result. A single touch from them will cause you incredible pain and prolonged exposure will leave you completely incapacitated and all but certainly dead." Archive cautioned. Sora shuddered a bit.

"Yeah, definitely glad I haven't been hit by one of those things yet. Thanks for warning me on that." Sora replied as they rounded another corner. He'd have asked Archive for a hint or two regarding where to go, but he knew better than to ask that. Archive had made it clear he was here to protect Sora from the monsters and that was about it. He wasn't going to hold Sora's hand throughout this whole mission that had been handed to Sora, whether he wanted it or not.

"How come they're only showing up here?" Sora wondered aloud to Archive, who didn't visibly react.

"Their source is rooted in a foul corner of the Dark Realm. However, despite a common place of origin they are constantly locked in battle with the Pureblood Heartless, thus negating escape through the Dark Realm. They do have a direct escape route, but this world prevents them from doing just that. Hence why they attack only this world, and why their attacks became much more common and desperate now that you are here" Archive explained. Sora groaned and rubbed his temples.

"I feel like the more I learn, the less I know about all this." Sora complained, but decided to keep quiet and mull all this new information over. It was a lot to take in at once, after all. Maybe if he let it all sit for a while, he'd be able to piece together some of the stuff that Archive had left out. And by his own admission, he had left stuff out. However, to what extent he was leaving information out was still a mystery.

And then there was that melancholy way he talked about Light and Darkness, and how they were different now. He'd mentioned the Darkness getting… tainted was the word he used. What did that mean?

Whatever it meant, Sora had a feeling he wouldn't be getting the answer from Archive, at least not yet. So, Sora resigned himself to another stretch of the much dreaded awkward silence. Oh, how he hated the awkward silence.

The stretch of silence continued on for what felt like hours as Sora delved further into the maze; finding dead ends, dealing with the frustration of backtracking and getting turned around by the labyrinth, trying to think of SOMETHING to talk to Archive about that wasn't related to the discussion they'd had earlier, so on and so forth. However, the next corner they rounded felt like a gift from Kingdom Hearts, as Sora had found his way through the maze to the final trial. However, as he crossed the threshold, he noticed that Archive didn't follow. Sora looked back at him for a moment before remembering that Archive was only here to deal with external interference and would therefore not be taking part in the trial.

"Alright, wish me luck." Sora called back to his new companion as he stepped up to the obelisk and waited.

"…_Another trial lies before you… Do you except it…?"_

Sora summoned Kingdom Key and readied himself for battle. There was a moment of pause before several spheres of purple and black energy materialized out of thin air that began sparking before transforming into what looked like hunks of purple crystal framed by a highly polished black stone, similar to the vambrace Sora wore on his left arm. The pieces flew about before arranging themselves into the form of a humanoid creature.

"Huh. I'm having flashbacks to the Guard Armor… At least you aren't as big." Sora muttered as the construct floated down and raised its 'hand' and launched several bolts of Dark energy at Sora, who rolled out of the way of the blasts before rushing forward, keyblade raised to strike! The entity floated backwards before lifting both hands up and launching a large ball of Dark energy at Sora. Instead of dodging this one, Sora swung his keyblade around to bat the blast away. However, the blast burst the moment Kingdom Key touched the sphere. What happened next though, was very confusing to Sora. Instead of being thrown back by a concussive force, the energy instead seemed to cling to Sora's body.

"What is this stuff?!" Sora exclaimed, though he was soon answered when the entity began to spin like a top while rapidly launching bolts of Darkness! However, even though the projectiles looked one to one with the blasts that the entity had opened the fight with, there was a distinct difference. Namely, that the blasts were now all homing in on him. And there were dozens of them.

"I miss Reflega…" Sora muttered as he began to duck, dodge, dive and deflect with everything he had. He managed to make it through that barrage unscathed, but now the entity had two spheres of Dark energy the size of blitzballs in its hands. It crossed its arms and then swung them outwards, sending the spheres flying out to either side of Sora. As soon as the spheres left its hands, the blasts divided into three, though they didn't lose any size. Additionally, they were curving midflight to head straight for Sora, much like the blasts from before.

"I _really _miss Reflega…" Sora groaned as he rolled forward to avoid the blasts and started making another run for the entity. Luck was on his side this time, as the entity appeared to need a moment of recovery after all those projectile attacks. It looked to be having difficulty holding itself in humanoid form, with the segments shuddering and dipping in the air.

"If this thing is really like the Guard Armor, I can possibly limit it's offensive options by taking out the arms and legs, or I can try to take it out quick…" Sora muttered as he got closer, keyblade reared back for a strike.

"…Or I can go straight for the head!" Sora shouted as he leapt forward, whipping Kingdom Key through the air and slamming it straight into the entity's head! The head went spiralling away as though Sora had just hit a home-run, but it suddenly righted itself and flew back into place as if connected by an elastic. Once the head was back on its shoulders, the entity fully recovered and turned to face Sora once more. Sora grunted as he readied himself for another onslaught. However, as he waited for the entity to make a move, he couldn't help but notice that the strange energy that had stuck to him earlier had dissipated.

"Okay… don't know what that did, but okay." Sora muttered before he noticed the entity charging up that twin sphere attack from before. However, when it went to launch the attack, it instead directed it straight at Sora. Much to Sora's surprise, the blasts didn't have any homing when they split this time, though they were much faster. Sora dove out of the way of the blasts before launching a pair of fireballs towards the entity. The fireballs impacted and caused the limb sections that were struck to shake, throwing the entity off balance!

"There!" Sora shouted as he rushed forward to seize the brief opening. However, the entity recovered quicker than Sora anticipated and began to spin like a top again.

"Oh no…" Sora muttered as a storm of Dark bolts erupted from the entity once more, much swifter than the last time. However, they weren't homing in on him this time.

"What gives? Why aren't they… ohhhhhh! It was that weird attack at the beginning! Now that it's faded, the blasts can't home in on me!" Sora realized as he blocked and dodged blasts before seeing an opening as the entity had once again overtaxed itself and was struggling to stay aloft. Sora resumed his charge and leapt into the air, swatting the head of the entity to the ground and proceeding to pelt it with Fire magic before performing a leaping slash to finish it off!

The entity shuddering and twisted erratically before each of the individual body parts burst into Dark energy and recollected into a glowing purple orb that flew into the dark vambrace. Sora looked at the vambrace, which had changed again. It now sported much more detailing, with what looked like purple inscriptions along the edges of the central sigil. Sora could make out some of it, but other parts he couldn't. He'd likely need to unlock more of the obelisks before he could read it.

As Sora finished inspecting the vambrace, he heard the distinct shuddering that heralded the obelisk sinking into the ground to join with the fragments in the central courtyard.

"Excellently done."

Sora turned to see Archive approaching him.

"The power you just acquired will allow you to create a pillar of energy that will mark the location of the nearest shackle to you. It should aid you in tracking down the less visible ones." Archive informed Sora as he reached him.

"Now then, I suggest we return to the central courtyard so you may unlock the shackle." Archive concluded. Sora nodded and used the vambrace to bring up the pseudo-map and located the central courtyard of the maze. After selecting it, he was immediately surrounded by the familiar pillar of dark energy before it cleared, and he found himself back in the central courtyard.

Sora looked around to make sure that Archive had made it and was briefly relieved to see that his new traveling companion hadn't been left behind. Sora then turned to the obelisk and summoned Kingdom Key, raising the weapon in front of him. Light collected around the tip and fired a beam into the obelisk. The familiar shine began, and Sora covered his eyes while bracing for the incoming headache. When the light cleared, the obelisk was gone.

"Here it comes…" Sora muttered, and the familiar pain arrived, though it was significantly lesser in comparison to the last time. However, that didn't stop the dizzy spell that was immediately followed by his vision dimming before he truly fell unconscious.

"_Wonder what I'm going to see this time…" _Sora thought in the last moments before his vision completely blacked out.

* * *

**And there we are! **

**Creativity: You know, I can't help but feel that Archive is just walking exposition right now.**

**Author: Maybe, but we've yet to dig into the really juicy stuff. Trust me, he'll get more interesting in future.**

**So, this chapter was completed THE DAY before I resumed college and just going off my notes, I'd say we've got two more worlds to visit with Ryo's group and a bit more Sora exploration before season 1 is wrapped up properly. Of course, I don't have all day to just do writing anymore, so you all will probably see this much later. College takes precedence, after all.**

**Creativity: However, I'd say we're making good progress! **

**Author: Indeed! So, next chapter we return to Ryo's perspective, and I gotta say that I'm **_**really **_**excited about this upcoming mini-arc.**

**But I think that's enough of that. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please review and maybe check out the Discord server! **

**See ya on Saturday!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Greetings everyone! I hope this weekend is treating you well! And if not, well perhaps this chapter will help fix that a little.**

**Creativity: I foresee pain and suffering for me… So much pain and suffering…**

**Author: Perhaps, but the show must go on regardless!**

**Now, before we get into the rest of this opening AN, let's respond to the reviews:**

**And that's the reviews handled!**

**So, last chapter we had Sora complete the last of the trials within the labyrinth, as well as talk with his new travelling companion known as Archive, who shed some light onto the nature of the mysterious world that Sora is trapped in, and its inhabitants. **

**This chapter, we're switching perspectives back to Ryo and his group as they continue their adventure. And oh boy, do we have a doozy of an adventure lined up! **

**Creativity: I'm shuddering with anticipation!**

**Author: But before we do that, first we provide the Discord password: 5RRcGwh**

**And with that out of the way… **_**ahem…**_** Allow us to proudly present chapter 14 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

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"_You are absolutely certain you can't stay?" _

"_Unfortunately, we can't. We still have a long journey ahead of us."_

Ryo had the feeling that had the group (including him) not been tempted by the idea to try putting down roots here, the constant questioning of whether or not they had to keep moving to be rather irritating. Even if it had been irritating though, it wouldn't do to show that irritation to the king and queen, who had both tried to convince them to stay.

However, the group hadn't been swayed and they had departed a few days after they were released from the medical ward. The goodbye had been harder than Ryo had thought it'd be, and he easily had the least personal relationship with the royals out of all four of his friends. Barkos and Garren had apparently conversed with the king on the subjects of study and warrior training respectively, and Veris had obviously connected with the queen through the study of magic.

At the moment, the group was resting at the edge of a forest. They'd left Radiant Garden a few days earlier and the breach stone had activated itself once more and deposited them on a dirt road in them middle of nowhere. They'd tried to find where they were on a map, but they didn't have any reliable landmarks to figure that out, so they'd just picked a direction (West, the same direction they'd be going in before they'd gotten zapped to Radiant Garden) and started walking. Currently, they were resting in the shade of a forest's edge. Ryo was trying to meditate in an effort to see if he could reawaken any of his former strength, but he still kept an eye on what was going on with the rest of the group. Garren was doing some maintenance work on his axe while Veris and Barkos were both engrossed in tomes of magic that had been gifted to them by the king and queen.

The group had been given a small collection of gifts before they'd departed from Radiant Garden, as thanks for their aid in defending the kingdom from the invading monsters. Among those gifts was an enchanted bag that was many times more spacious on the inside than its relatively small size would suggest. It wasn't infinite, but it was able to carry all of their rations, potions, ethers, several books, weapons and possibly a few armor pieces. That alone probably made it the best of the gifts they received, but that didn't diminish the others. Veris had received a tome of magic that had been magically written by the queen to continue Veris' education in magic. Veris hadn't accepted or declined Ryo's offer to provide his own training, but he didn't believe she'd forgotten it.

Similarly, after Barkos explained he'd used his limited knowledge of runic magic, he'd been provided with a tome that detailed the ins and outs of runic magic, as well as a dictionary for all the runes and several rune combinations that Barkos would need. The queen confessed that runic magic wasn't a field she'd studied, as she already had her elemental magic, but she'd arranged for several other castle mages to create the two books for Barkos.

Garren had received a gift of several pieces of enchanted armor for his non-dominant arm. The armor was enchanted to not only be much more durable than most shields, but it was also enchanted to be able to channel energy from a blow into an outward pulse. However, it had its limits so Garren couldn't use it willy nilly. The armor required a degree of precision to properly utilize, but just the defence it offered was a great boon to Garren, as before he could only attempt to block with his axe and hope for the best. Now, his whole left arm was capable of functioning as a shield.

As for Ryo, they'd gifted him with a few armor pieces of his own; a pair of bracers made from a dark colored metal that were made specifically for guarding against magic. He hadn't had the opportunity to test them yet, but he couldn't help but wonder if they'd be of any use against the strange monsters they kept running into. Aside from that, they'd also provided him with a new sword, but even if he accepted the gift, he didn't think he'd be using it. He felt that his current blade was better suited to his fighting style. The other one, while technically built for a speedier fighter, was noticeably heavier and had thrown Ryo off his rhythm when he'd given it a test run earlier. He was considering selling it but figured that it may be a better idea to hang onto it for a short while. Besides, he didn't think it would be considered 'good form' to turn around and sell a gift from royalty.

Ryo closed his eyes and resumed his meditation. He'd been at it for a while now, and while it was doing good things for easing his muscles for when they resumed their trek, he couldn't tell if his strength was returning as he intended or not.

As he continued meditating, his thoughts turned to the conversation he'd had with his friends in the hospital ward. There hadn't been a word spoken about that discussion ever since it concluded, which somewhat surprised Ryo. He figured there'd be a few questions here or there, or even just a few words in reference to it, but there had been absolutely nothing. It was as if they were trying to pretend that the conversation had never happened. It could've been that they felt they'd overstepped and were trying to avoid doing so again, but Ryo didn't think that was it. Maybe it was a good thing this never came up again, but Ryo had a feeling that this deliberate avoidance was for a reason that was going to end painfully for him.

Shaking his head, Ryo stood up and stretched a bit before rolling his shoulders, feeling a satisfying pop.

"We should probably keep moving." Ryo suggested. The others agreed and packed up their things without a word. Ryo frowned a bit. There had been a lot less conversation between them ever since, well… _that_ conversation.

The trek from there was fairly uneventful for the next hour or so. Luckily, there was a bit of idle chatter between everyone, mainly discussing the gifts they'd received from the royals, when Ryo noticed a familiar flashing from his pack. Even though he had a good guess as to what it was, he still checked to make sure.

As he suspected, the breach stone was acting up again.

"Brace!" Ryo shouted as the stone began to glow brighter and brighter. Everyone shielded their eyes as the stone's blinding light encompassed them all. Ryo felt a moment of weightlessness, leaving as quick as it came before the light vanished and everyone collapsed to the ground. Rather noisily, in fact. There was a loud clanging noise as they hit the ground, or floor as it were.

"Ow… That hurt more than the other ones…" Garren muttered as he rolled over and pulled himself up to a sitting position while rubbing his left knee. Ryo mirrored him, though he was rubbing his shoulder.

"Okay, so I think it's fair to say that we're inside a building of some kind, though I don't know why they'd have a metal floor." Barkos muttered as he slowly rose to his feet. Ryo had to agree on that note. Why use metal for floors? Seemed like a waste of a precious resource to him. Once everyone was back on their feet, they started taking a look at their surroundings. Turns out it wasn't just the floor that was made of metal. The walls, the floors, the shelves that lined the rooms, the door (That looked particularly impressive), it all was made of metal.

Ryo's attention turned to the door. It was large and raised slightly off the ground, with a massive metal wheel of some kind mounted on the front. He tugged on it a few times, but the door didn't budge at all. Looking at the door again, he tried twisting the wheel to the right, though that didn't work either. However, when he turned it to the left the wheel gave and he heard something shifting within the door. Once he'd turned it enough, he tugged again with a bit more force. The door was heavy, but it opened this time. Stepping out of the metal room, they found themselves now inside a metal corridor.

"Is this entire place made of metal?" Ryo wondered aloud as they wandered the halls, searching for any human inhabitants. They had to be around. The clanging echoes of their footsteps weren't alone, and there were numerous sources of light along the metal corridors. Aside from the lights, there were numerous pipes running along the ceiling and walls, with valves that occasionally discharged steam. As they navigated the strange corridors, occasionally getting spooked when steam sprayed in their faces without warning, they eventually found other people. It was mostly men, all dressed in white shirts and blue overalls with, large mitts with individual fingers and some sort of cap. They were all also pretty burly. Ryo suspected it came with whatever job they were doing down here, which he guessed was some form of maintenance work.

"Hello! Any of you mind giving us directions, because we're kind of lost." Garren called to them. All eyes were immediately on them with looks of shock and disbelief, which was immediately followed by muttering.

"Who're they?"

"How old are they? Twelve? Thirteen?"

"What are they wearing?"

"What's with the weapons? What is this, the medieval ages?"

"Gotta be stowaways. I say bring 'em to the Commander or Lieutenant."

"Yeah, probably a good idea."

The next thing they knew, the group was being held by their arms and 'escorted' through the winding corridors until they got to some better let, slightly roomier corridors until the blasted metal corridors came to and end as they were dragged into a massive room that despite the situation they were in, was a sight to behold. It was fairly well lit for one, which made it easier to appreciate the massive window ahead of them. Outside the window was a deep blue landscape, with dark colored rock formations and… fish? Why were there fish? And why were the rocks moving?

"Guys, I think we might be on a ship that's underwater…" Barkos murmured to the rest of the group, though not quite inaudible as one of the men hauling them guffawed at the sentence.

"Well of course you are! This is the _Ulysses_, finest submarine ever created!" One of them boasted. If Ryo hadn't had his arms pinned, he would be rubbing his face in exasperation.

"Of course, the blasted rock would drop us wherever _this _is instead of dry land…" He grumbled under his breath before he realized that they'd just come to a stop. Looking up, Ryo realized they'd been led up to what he assumed were the ones running this boat, and to say they were displeased would be an understatement. On the right was a tall, blonde woman who was glaring at them as if she was determined to make them drop dead on the spot with just her gaze, though there was an analytical edge to her stare as she her eyes roamed over their weapons.

On the left was an older man with gray hair and dressed in green formal wear. He had a formidable presence to him along with a heartless and callous glint in his eyes, though Ryo could see it hidden behind a veil of charisma. It was a carefully composed image, but one that Ryo suspected relied on trust of one level or another. Hence why Ryo had seen through it, if only for a moment. Before he'd even seen the man's face, he didn't trust him very much. To be fair, he didn't really trust anyone aboard whatever this contraption was yet, but he now had reason to distrust this man in particular.

It appeared that there had been a meeting of some kind going on, and their arrival was most definitely an interruption. Among the others assembled was a girl dressed in the same uniform as the men that were holding the group. She had a bored expression on her face and appeared to be chewing on something. To her right was a short, rather rotund man big eyes and a moustache, who was wearing a peculiar hat and goggles. He might not have been that rotund though, as he was wearing an incredibly thick coat. Ryo believed the man could best be described as twitchy, if he was to use only one word.

On the left of the girl from before was a thin man who wore a black long-sleeve shirt under a metal apron. He had short black hair with sides shaved off, and a thick moustache. He also seemed rather unimpressed with the whole meeting.

Finally, there was a man who looked a little out of place, even among as odd a collection of people this was. He was on the skinny side with light brown hair and almost comically large glasses. He was holding a book in his hands and was the only one who was looking at them with a mixture of confusion and irritation.

"Gentlemen, what is this all about?" The man in charge asked in a tired tone. The one man who wasn't holding any of them saluted before answered.

"Found 'em wandering around near the engines, sir! Stowaways without a doubt!" The worker announced. The blonde woman's eyes became more imperious than before, while the man raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"How exactly did stowaways get on board? This mission's about as classified as it gets and the hoops that would have to be jumped through just to get on board… well, I find it hard to believe that four teenagers playing make believe managed to pull it off." The man replied. The woman just glared more.

"And yet, here they are. They are obviously not part of the exploration team or the crew." The blonde woman growled. The man stroked his chin as he eyed them.

"True enough. Put 'em in the brig. We'll deal with them later." The apparent leader decided before turning back to the group. As they were about to be led away, Ryo paused, which was enough to get his handlers' attention.

"Hey, you in there? Quit draggin' your feet and get movin'!" One of them growled at him. Ryo didn't budge as his eyes darted about the floor.

"Something's wrong…" He muttered. Veris craned her neck to look at him.

"Everything okay back there?" She asked.

"Something's going on outside… whatever this thing is. Last time I got a feeling like this…" He replied, though the way his voice tapered off was enough to tell them what he was remembering and that put them all on edge.

What followed didn't exactly help, as a strange metallic rumbling began to echo about the massive room. Even the light had dimmed a fair bit, which only made the noise all the more ominous.

"Okay, we need to get out of here!" Barkos exclaimed the moment the noise died down. The apparent leader started giving orders to the helmsman when suddenly everything started to violently shake, throwing everyone to the floor! As Ryo tried to right himself, his eyes spun to the main window of this deathtrap. The leader and the blonde woman, apparently the second in command started shouting orders. People started scrambling about to follow them while the teenager that had been at them meeting started scrambling down the metal corridors. And then there was the telltale sound that the damn metal coffin was taking on water.

"Why did we have to get zapped here?!" Garren complained loudly before the machine was jostled again, going vertical this time and causing them to start sliding down towards the window! Ryo managed to catch himself on the railing and managed to catch Barkos, hauling him to his own ledge. Garren and Veris both managed to right themselves and catch the railing. Ryo then made the mistake of looking down and found himself staring into a massive red eye whose crimson light filled the entire room!

"Jiminy Christmas! It's a machine!" The thin, bespectacled man shouted. He'd apparently been thrown over the railing and landed on the glass.

As more orders came and the machine was righted, apparently with the crew launching a counterattack against the machine that was attacking them. However, it was plainly obvious to Ryo that they wouldn't stand a chance against whatever was after them.

Thus, when the people in charge finally figured that out, the group took off in hot pursuit of them, jumping into the nearest trap door that the others were jumping into, finding themselves joining what appeared to be the main group.

"How did you four get in here?!" The teenager shouted at them as the hatch was shut behind them.

"How about we explain this if we _don't _die?!" Veris replied as they mimicked their new, albeit _very _reluctant companions and strapped themselves into their seats.

"Lieutenant!" The leader shouted.

"I'm working on it!" She shouted back before the machine suddenly lurched forward and the massive window in front was filled with the view of the ocean. And apparently no a moment to soon, as Ryo saw a massive surge of electrical energy streak past them, having just lanced through the machine they'd just escaped. Ryo's senses were going wild. He knew magic when he saw it and that was definitely magic. Whoever made that automaton _really _knew what they were doing if they could imbue it with Thunder magic that powerful, and specifically tailored to undersea use.

"What have we gotten ourselves wrapped up in?" Ryo muttered as the second in command shouted orders, receiving garbled feedback from… somewhere in the ship. Ryo didn't think it was ghosts, but he couldn't ascertain where it was coming from.

Streaks of Thunder magic surged past them, usually accompanied by an explosion that Ryo had the sinking suspicion was another craft that was making a break for safety.

"Reflega wouldn't go amiss right about now!" Veris muttered as their own craft rocked from a missed Thunder shot.

"Bemoan the lack of defensive abilities when we're not this crowded or in mortal danger!" Ryo hissed back. They continued down the narrow passageway until everyone felt a lurch as the craft broke through the surface of the water, and hopefully out of danger. As Ryo unbuckled himself from his seat and wiped the sweat from his brow, he saw the others similarly slumping over. The second in command immediately marched past them and wrenched open the hatch so they could disembark. As everyone did just that (Ryo and the others were _very _happy to be back on solid ground), it turned out that only their craft, along with a much smaller one had made it all the way to this air pocket.

As the crew assembled and took stock of their situation, their gear and whatever else they needed to take stock of, Ryo and the others kept their distance. For one, it wasn't their friends and colleagues that had died to that automaton. For another, they'd rather not be questioned as to how they ended up on that craft, submarine if Ryo recalled, since he didn't believe the crew would buy it if they explained how the breach stone worked. Still, they did need to consider _how _exactly they were going to explain this lunacy to the crew. Assuming they weren't just clapped in irons the moment they remembered that the group was there.

That happened sooner than expected as the crew had finished doing… whatever they'd been doing, they set about readying to move out. The leader and the apparent inner circle of the crew were approaching them, and they looked displeased.

"I think we're overdue for a chat." The leader stated in a low tone of voice as he pulled something from what looked like a sheathe at his side. Ryo didn't know exactly what it was, but he knew a weapon when he saw it.

"This mission was top secret, as was the construction of the _Ulysses_, which begs the question of how four _teenagers_ got down onto the ship we launched from, let alone how they got onto the submarine. I didn't intend to deal with you until after the mission was over, but now my schedule is remarkably open." The leader ordered. Ryo began assessing their options. He could start bald-face lying, provide half-truths or just be straight with them and give them a true, honest explanation. At the moment, the final option, however ludicrous it would probably sound to them, was the least likely to get them killed.

Wordlessly, Ryo fished around in his pack and produced the breach stone, praying that he wasn't stabbing himself through the foot with this.

"We had no idea what was going on and we didn't sneak onboard. The way we wound up on board was this." Ryo began. The crew started eying the stone with confusion, skepticism and interest for a whole other reason. He could practically hear them totalling up the munny they were guessing it could be worth. Especially the leader and the second in command, who were hiding their interest quite well, though not enough that Ryo and the others weren't noticing.

However, the monetary interest didn't extend to the _whole _group. The one with the big glasses was absolutely engrossed with the stone with almost childlike wonderment and curiosity.

"What is that? I've never seen, or even heard of anything like it." He asked as he peered closer at it.

"It's called a breach stone. It's supposed to transport the user to different places. There's debate over whether or not it transports you to different points on the world, or to other worlds entirely, or both, but whichever it is, it works." Ryo continued before being stopped by the second in command.

"So, to clarify, you used this, what did you call it, _breach stone_ to teleport yourselves aboard the _Ulysses_?" she asked. Ryo shrugged.

"Kind of? The stone doesn't really listen to us. It just kicks in whenever it wants to, so we don't know when we're going to be dragged somewhere, or where we're going to end up." Ryo finished explaining. The leader frowned a bit before turning to the short round member of the crew.

"Mole, check the stone; see if it confirms their story." He ordered. Quick as a flash, the man in question swiped the stone from Ryo's grasp as he eyed it with almost manic glee before he caused his strange goggles to extend like telescopes as he investigated every inch of the stone. This went on for several minutes as the man, Mole as the leader had referred to him as, continued to check the stone. However, it quickly became cause for concern as Mole began to rant in an increasingly high pitched volume before threw back his head with an almost comical wail before falling on his back.

"It is comPleTLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE!" He shrieked as Ryo snatched the stone back from the man as he apparently had a fit.

"Mole? Mole! Mole, snap out of it!" The leader shouted before the armored, moustached man stepped forward.

"Sir, allow me…" He said before he pulled Mole up and proceeded to slap him across the face! Mole shook his head vigorously before looking at the stone like it was a venomous snake.

"Its molecular structure is… is… It has none! It doesn't even have a defined state of matter!" He shrieked as he hid behind a massive man with dark skin and a shaved head. Ryo hadn't seen him at the meeting, but he definitely had presence. The leader simply shook his head.

"Well, I suppose that counts as a confirmation. So, the stone zapped you away from wherever you were, and you were just unlucky enough to be dumped on my ship. Well, that clears you of being stowaways or potential saboteurs, and I suppose we need all the help we can get. Alright, you're tagging along until that stone zaps you away again. Hopefully you can help replace some of the men we lost on the way down. The name's Lyle Rourke. I'm in charge of this expedition." The leader, Rourke, introduced himself.

"My name's Ryo. This is Veris, Barkos and Garren." Ryo introduced himself and the others, gesturing to himself and the others as he did so.

"I'll let you all get acquainted. We got work to do, so we better all get on a first-name basis." Rourke declared as he went back to continue coordinating the rest of the crew. His second in command followed along with, not bothering to introduce herself.

"Well, we'll definitely get along great." Ryo sarcastically muttered as everyone started heading back to join the rest of the crew.

"Don't worry about her. She's just dealing with the hefty losses we just had." The tall man replied. His voice had hints of enthusiasm, though it was obviously buried a bit under the hefty losses he'd just mentioned.

"Best introduce ourselves. The name's Sweet. Joshua Sweet. I'm the doctor on this trip. 'Lady who's barking orders is Helga Sinclair." Sweet informed them. That was four names he had now; Rourke, Mole, Helga and Sweet.

The next to introduce themselves was the teenager, who looked considerably less displeased with them once the whole story was out and now had an air of curiosity to her.

"Audrey Olivia. Chief Mechanic." She introduced herself before hurrying ahead to make sure the vehicles were working properly. Ryo had a feeling they'd be getting more questions from her later. But for now, they had other introductions to take care of, as well as finding where they fit into all this.

Speaking of introductions, the next to introduce themselves was the armored, moustachioed man.

"Hello. My name's Vinny. I like to blow stuff up." He stated before immediately striding off to the rest of the caravan. The group paused for a moment to consider and worry about the statement the now named Vinny had just told them before they remembered to keep moving. The last member of the inner circle that they hadn't been introduced to shrugged apologetically at them.

"I had a similar reaction when I saw him carting in all his explosives. Oh, my name's Milo Thatch. I'm the cartographer and linguist." He explained, shaking each of their hands. That particular gesture was a welcome change of pace after the last hour or so and immediately had everyone much preferring him to most, even all of the expedition crew. As they joined the crew, they found themselves sticking closer to Milo, though his body language suggested that he felt just as lost as they did. Milo did seem to stick out a bit among the rest of the crew. Aside from the awkwardness, there was also a simple lack of experience that the others definitely showed, as well as a sense of enthusiasm from him that the others didn't have.

"So, why do you all have medieval weapons? You mercenaries of some kind?" Milo asked out of the blue.

"We're just travelers, but we've had a tendency since we started to get sucked into trouble, usually because of that damn rock." Ryo replied, growling a little bit at the mention of the breach stone. Milo stroked his chin thoughtfully, seemingly not noticing the irritated tone at the end.

"Maybe there's some criteria that causes it to activate. Has there been some common element between all the places the breach stone has taken you to?" Milo asked. Ryo frowned as he thought about it for a moment before he heard shouting from further up the caravan. Immediately upon hearing the commotion, Ryo and the others started hurrying towards it. As they approached, they heard a keening wail that sounded disturbingly familiar. However, it was too different to be what he initially suspected. But the similarities… It was maddeningly close.

After managing to reach the front, Ryo and the others stopped dead. Staring back at them was a small group of imps, hayans and a new variety monster that looked similar to a skeletal fish, or more accurately, a skeletal shark. It was about two meters long and the pieces didn't seem to be properly connected together, instead joined together with what looked like colored lightning.

And on the note of color, that was a setting off several alarm bells. Namely, that these monsters didn't have the usual aggressive crimson energy. Instead, the red was replaced with a dark blue energy, which seemed to carry over another change to the hayans specifically. Instead of the usual angry appearance, their faces were contorted in anguish.

The group drew their weapons, readying for a fight, but the horde of monsters didn't charge. Instead, three people stepped into view from out of a tunnel. The ones on the left and right stood further ahead and were dressed in a mix of dark blue, silver, gold and purple armor and wore identical metal masks with a very familiar sigil over their faces. The one on the left was a bit taller and had an ornate sword strapped to their left side. They wore what looked like silk gloves and had what looked like either an overly large gauntlet or an extremely small shield on their left arm.

The one on the right was at least a head shorter than the one on the left and had a hood drawn over their head. Their arms were clad in clawed gauntlets and there was what looked like some odd cross of a flail and whip hanging at their left side. It was composed of a length of chain with several spiked claws that formed a sphere at the end of the chain.

The one in the middle was not as opulently dressed as the ones to either side, but it was still well-armored. It had a mask with no eye, nose or mouth holes, and the same sigil as the other two was painted on the front. Its armor was well-crafted, though not intricate and showy like the other two's armor was. Clutched in its hand was a massive longsword that looked incredibly old and scratched, composed of dark gray material with the scratches all glowing dark blue.

The whole group felt as if a tub of ice had been dumped over them. The uniforms and sigils were unmistakeable. These people were members of the same group that had attacked their home; Servants of the Dread King.

The ones on the left and right both gestured forward, and the monsters all shrieked in response. The humanoid in the middle hefted their longsword and began stalking down towards the group as the monsters all charged forward. Ryo and the group all readied their weapons, praying that the rest of the expedition could fight as well, because Ryo suspected that this horde was only the beginning of their troubles.

* * *

**And we're done! This took less time to write than I anticipated, but that's probably because we knew that the Ryo chapters were going to be longer from now on.**

**Creativity: I STILL SUFFER!**

**Author: Oh, come on, you big baby. I was way more busy with college to really put our noses to the grindstone this time.**

**Anyway, it's September 1****st**** as I'm writing this closing dialogue, meaning I've been back in college for a week now. And yeah, we're doing Atlantis as a world! Figured I'd go through worlds that haven't been seen in KH yet (Radiant Garden being the exception) and I figured Atlantis would be a good place to go for this one.**

**Creativity: AND GASP! THE DREAD KING HAS BECOME RELEVANT AGAIN!**

**Author: Indeed! We'll cover more details on the newcomers and the Dread King at a later date, as well as the new monster variations, but for now we have awesome for next time!**

**Well, Ima call it here for today! I've got pizza to warm up, a test to study for, and a chapter of Limit Breaker to write! Until then, please review, hope to see you on Discord, and see you on Tuesday!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Good evening to you all, and welcome back to Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

**Creativity: Where your joy and amusement are derived from my suffering!**

**Author: Probably wouldn't be suffering so much if you laid off the donuts and cupcakes.**

**Creativity: Let me have what fleeting moments of joy I can!**

**Author: There's no winning with you…**

**Anyway, this chapter we continue with Ryo and friends' journey to Atlantis! But before we do our brief recap, let's do some review responses!**

**CeleneTheAngel: Ah yes, the Dread King. We'll get more into him later. As for the difference in color for the beasties, I've left a few hints as to what they are in previous chapters, and a few hints in future.**

**And that takes care of that! Now then, where were we… Oh yes!**

**When we last left off, our heroes found themselves unintentional stowaways aboard the **_**Ulysses, **_**a submarine whose crew were on an expedition to discover Atlantis! But gasp! Soldiers of the Dread King have appeared, along with a horde of familiar monsters! Whatever shall they do?!**

**Creativity: Find out next time, on…**

**Author: NONE OF THAT! Because you will find out NOW! And on that note, **_**ahem…**_

**I now proudly present chapter 15 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

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Considering all the lunacy the past month or so of lunacy that apparently qualified as adventuring that Ryo and his friends had undergone, he figured that he'd be used to things going sideways in a manner similar to their current predicament. Said predicament was being in the middle of a brawl with a group of monsters, with each individual person being basically surrounded on all sides by said monsters.

And yet, somehow, he was still surprised by all this. Though that probably had to do with the change in color, as well as the fact that there were humans, or three individuals that appeared to be human among them. They had their faces covered with masks that had no gaps for eyes, mouth or nose and had no visible skin, all of it being concealed beneath cloth and armor. Two of them were hanging back while the third had joined the charge against the expedition. And when that charge reached the front line, all hell broke loose.

Ryo was currently surrounded by four imps and three hayans, which had once bee five imps and six hayans before he introduced them to a razor sharp strip of steel. Ryo cocked his blade slightly, waiting for one of the monsters to make a move. One of the imps flexed its claws and leapt forward, only for Ryo to thrust his blade forward and stab the monster straight through the face. Immediately the other monsters rushed him, only for him to whirl around and take out two of them with a single slash, blocking the claws of the third before pushing it back and ducking as a pair of hayans swooped at him. From there, he sprang up and slashed overhead as two more of the mask monsters took a dive at him, destroying them both with one strike. Now left with only one imp and two hayans to deal with, he rushed forward, cutting down the last imp before it could react before he heard the keening wail of the remaining hayans diving at him again. Rolling to the side as they struck, he stabbed the first one before dragging the blade free and delivering a vertical slash to finish off the last one.

After doing a quick check to make sure he wasn't under immediate attack again, he took a moment to catch his breath before reassessing the situation. Thankfully, the crew of the _Ulysses _was capable of fighting well enough, with several of them having similar weapons to the one that Rourke had drawn on them when they made it into the underground cavern. As luck would have it, they did in fact work on the monsters and working together they'd managed to cut down the majority of the damn things without hurting Ryo or his friends. However, that still left the problem of the Dread Knight, as Ryo had begun referring to the third humanoid that had accompanied the monsters in their initial charge. The Dread Knight was proving to be much harder to put down than any of the monsters. At the moment, Rourke and Helga were trying their best to stop it by themselves, but it refused to fall. Ryo's guess was that its armor was more resistant to their weapons than the other monsters were. The Knight prepared its sword to strike but was stopped when Garren rushed in and took a heavy swing at the Knight's leg. However, the Knight noticed and dodged the strike before retaliating with one of his own. Garren managed to raise his armored arm to block, forcing the Knight to backpedal before preparing to attack again. However, Ryo was already baring down on him, aiming a two-handed slash at the knight's leg. He hoped to strike at a space between the armor joints, but the Knight saw the attack coming and instead kicked Ryo away before backhanding Garren to the ground! Ryo scrambled to his feet, ignoring the bruise that was no doubt forming and charged forward, this time going for a stab. Luckily, the Knight was focused on Garren so it didn't notice Ryo rushing in and stabbing it through the side! He could feel his sword pierce through from one side to the other, but the Knight didn't seem to notice this time, as Ryo was once again struck back with an armored fist, dazing him for a few moments. Luckily, he managed to recover long enough to roll out of the way as the Knight swung his sword down at him to cleave his head from his shoulders! After getting back on his feet, Ryo steadied his blade as the knight went for another strike! However, Ryo was ready this time and used the flat of his blade to redirect the strike to his side, narrowly missing his arm and creating an opening for him. He whirled around and slammed the pommel of his sword into the Knight's mask, which apparently did have an effect on the Knight, unlike getting skewered from left to right.

It was at this point that additional backup arrived, with Barkos pegging the Knight in the shoulders, Garren, having recovered from the backhand, rushing in with his axe held high to deliver a powerful strike to the back of the Knight's knees (though somehow the leg was still attacked to the rest of the body afterwards) and Veris slipping in amongst the chaos to stab her knife into the same wound Ryo had made before causing a gout of flame to erupt from said knife and into the Knight's body! The Knight let out a gurgling grunt and fell to their knee. Ryo took the opportunity to go for one more slash to the head, the flash of the blade ending with the mask on the Knight's face being cast off their face. Underneath the mask was a shrivelled face, waxy and dark gray. It's eyes were filled with a dark blue energy, framed with black. The Knight shuddered for a moment before dark blue energy erupted out of its mouth and eyes into a geyser of energy that rose up into the air before vanishing into thin air. Once that was done, the Knight dissolved to black dust, with the armor rusting before their eyes until it too was little more than dust.

There was a barely a minute longer of fighting before the rest of the monsters were destroyed. Ryo frantically looked around for the other two humanoids, but they seemed to have disappeared during the chaos. Ryo cursed under his breath. Whoever those two were, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were incredibly dangerous. They obviously held a position of superiority over both the blue monsters and the Dread Knight, which meant it was a safe assumption that they were more powerful than the Knight, or at least more dangerous. And they were still out there…

"As if everything leading up to this wasn't dangerous, stressful and insane enough already…" Ryo muttered to himself before turning to see Veris, Garren and Barkos all in varying levels of exhaustion.

"So, got anything else to share?"

Ryo turned to see Rourke approaching, his furrowed brow indicating that he wasn't happy.

"Sort of. In several aspects we're just as in the dark as you are." Ryo quickly explained as he began digging through his pack for potions before hurrying over to his own group and passing them around. It was mainly just Ryo and Garren who needed them. Even if they hadn't been hit a whole lot by that Knight, it stilled packed a wallop. After downing the potion, Ryo sighed as he felt the aches go away and the bruises vanish.

"You need an Ether after that last one?" He asked Veris, who nodded. After taking the offered Ether, they rejoined the group before pressing on, though Rourke pulled Ryo aside.

"Look, if we're gonna make it out of this, you need to come clean about those things. I know you know something. You admitted as much." Rourke stated. Ryo didn't see any reason to argue, though he did feel a long conversation coming on.

"Alright, but like I said, some of this is new to us too." Ryo warned before beginning properly.

"Everywhere that breach stone throws us, we come across those weird monsters. At first, it was just the masked ones and the bipedal ones, which we call hayans and imps respectively. Barkos named them. I'm not sure what they're after or where they come from, but we do know that there's methods of summoning them. Two of the encounters we've had, we found some sort of stone with strange runes carved on them that would spawn them. Good news is that the summoning rocks can be destroyed." Ryo explained. Rourke was quiet for most of it, taking all the information in. Ryo could see skepticism on his face, but he didn't appear to outright disbelieve what Ryo was telling him. So, Ryo kept going.

"The part that's got me and the others confused and worried is this particular encounter. The ones we've run into so far always glowed red and not blue. That in and of itself isn't what's concerning though, so much as it was the company they were keeping." Ryo continued before Rourke interjected.

"You mean those three humans, right? For a moment I thought they were Atlanteans, but I dismissed that notion pretty quickly." Rourke inquired. Ryo frowned.

"They're the reason we have to travel, or at least they're associated with the reason. Our town was attacked by a group of soldiers wearing remarkably similar uniforms and masks. They claim to serve 'The Dread King', but we no practically nothing about him or what he's after. Apparently, they're collecting magic, but if that is the case, we don't know to what end." Ryo finished explaining. Rourke frowned.

"If that's the case, what are they looking for in Atlantis?" the older man wondered aloud as the convoy continued onward. There were some moments along the way, such as when Milo almost accidentally led them into the lair of a giant bug monster. Luckily, there'd been no damage or injuries during that little event. Then there was one moment where Vinny fooled Milo into thinking he drank something called nitroglycerin. Ryo didn't know what that was, but given it was Vinny saying it and knowing what Vinny's job on this expedition was, Ryo could hazard a guess. Eventually they reached a massive chasm that lay between them and they way forward. Ryo started scoping out the area, trying to find some form of bridge, natural or otherwise while Milo and Vinny started investigating a massive nearby pillar. Well, Milo was investigating. Vinny was piling up red sticks connected to several wires near the base of the pillar before dragging Milo back behind a rock. From there, Vinny pressed a bar down into a box which caused all the sticks to explode and topple the pillar over the chasm, creating the needed bridge. Ryo frowned at this. A lot of work had gone into that pillar, and probably for good reason, only for it to be erased in the name of convenience. However, his distaste for the disregard on display was soon forgotten when Ryo had the sudden feeling that they were being watch. His hand unconsciously drifted to his sword as he scanned their surroundings. With those two agents of the Dread King still out there, he didn't want to be caught off-guard.

They didn't have any encounters however, and they soon were passing through another section of the cave. This one somehow was well below sub-zero temperatures, and the group was forced to take shelter in one of the vehicles since they didn't have any warm weather gear. Luckily, Veris was able to help with that by producing a fireball in her hands to keep them warm, though she had to disperse it when they didn't have any privacy. Ryo was impressed with how well she was able to maintain the magical flame. Her dedication to the study and practice of magic was showing results. Garren, Barkos and himself all expressed gratitude for the warmth once Milo had managed to guide the convoy into the next area. This time they were met with a massive wall that barred the way forward. Vinny wasn't confident in his ability to blow a hole in the wall, so Rourke turned to Mole, who took to the task with concerning levels of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, there appeared to be a problem with Mole's digging machine that manifested in the form of sparks, steam, smoke and a few jets of fire, making the whole group glad they'd opted to keep their distance. Audrey opened up the back of the machine and began to sort through it before leaving to grab something. In her absence, Milo started investigating on his own before doing something to the machine that caused it to begin functioning again. Audrey wasn't very happy with this. After getting an explanation from Milo, she gave him two hits in the shoulder before heading back to her own transport. The group as whole frowned at the exchanged but didn't give it too much thought. She was probably just a bit sore about having Milo solve the problem for her. It didn't matter very much as Mole immediately returned to the task at hand with gusto; boring a tunnel through the wall until they reached the other side, which came out to a massive chamber that featured yet another chasm, though this time it had a bridge. In fact, it had quite a bit of architecture that was holding up remarkably well. It was even illuminated by a massive glowing… something, Ryo wasn't sure of it was a stone or some sort of moss, but it was pretty bright, whatever it was. Rourke decided this would be where camp would be made and the group set up their own area near where the main crew was also getting set up. Barkos got started on putting their dinner and when the cook for the expedition was finished, they were all glad they had their own provisions. Ryo wasn't sure if the crew's meal was edible. Mole seemed to like it though.

As they started eating, they heard Milo get called over to the main group. He'd been set up in near a lamp and was reading from the same journal he'd been using to guide them through the chasms.

"Hey, why don't you four come over? The more the merrier!" they heard Sweet call to them. The group decided to take the crew up on the offer and walked over with their own food, which was a simple stew made from dried meat and a small assortment of veggies. Probably tasted heavenly compared to what the crew was eating though, as evidenced by the way Audrey was eyeballing the bowls they brought over. Almost desperately, in fact.

"You don't suppose I could get some of that, do you?" She asked Barkos in a hushed tone.

"If you can get your own bowl, go ahead. We don't have spares right now." He replied. It was almost scary how quickly she managed to grab a bowl and fresh spoon, ladle the stew into her bowl and get back to the group. After gulping down a couple of spoonful's, likely to try and get the taste of the slop the others were eating out of her mouth, she turned to Milo who had his nose in the journal again.

"Hey Milo, don't you ever close that book?" She asked as she ate another spoonful. Now the whole rest of the group was eying the stew.

"Yeah, you must have read that at least a dozen times by now." Sweet added. Milo shrugged.

"Yeah, I know, but this… this doesn't make any sense." He stated with a hint of confusion, curiosity and maybe a bit of frustration before continuing.

"See this passage here, the Shepard seems to be leading up to something, he calls it the Heart of Atlantis. It could be the power source that the legends refer to, but then it cuts off. It's almost like there's a missing page." Milo explained.

"Kid, relax. We don't get paid overtime." Vinny told Milo.

"We aren't getting payed at all." Veris quipped before taking another bite from her stew.

"I know, I know. I suppose I got a little carried away. But hey, that's what all about, right? I mean discovery, teamwork, adventure? Unless, maybe, you're just in for the money." Milo continued, shrinking back a bit at the 'money' part. To absolutely no one's surprise, the answer was unanimously money.

"Guess I set myself up for that one." Milo muttered embarrassedly before he began rubbing his neck.

"Is there something wrong with your neck?" Sweet asked as he took a closer look at it.

"Oh yeah, I must have hurt it when…" Milo began before Sweet cut him off by grabbing his head and giving it a couple of turns that were accompanied by cracking noises.

"Better?" Sweet asked.

"Yeah, thanks!" Milo stated.

"Where'd you learn that?" Garren asked, impressed and intrigued.

"Arapaho medicine man." Sweet stated before going into further detail, though the names and details that Sweet mentioned weren't familiar at all to Ryo, or the others likely, since they looked to Barkos and he looked just as lost as they were. Unfortunately, story time was interrupted by the cook who was offering them seconds. Luckily, the group and Audrey managed to hide their bowls before the cook noticed, all five of whom sighed with relief when he left.

"Say Milo, you don't think I could take a look at that journal with you, could I? I've been studying old runes and I'm wondering if there's anything in here that would match up with my notes." Barkos chimed in. Ryo could practically see the excitement in both Milo and Barkos' eyes at the mention of old runes.

"Absolutely! You got everything you need here?" Milo asked. Barkos enthusiastically nodded and rushed back to their campsite to retrieve his bag and notes before he and Milo went back to where Milo had been sitting before and got to work.

"And that's the last we'll see of them for a while." Garren commented, getting a mixture of chuckles and groans.

"Say… Veris was it? How come you only use a knife when they've got an axe, a sword and a bow?" Audrey asked Veris, who exasperatedly huffed.

"Yeah, it is a bit irritating to be stuck with just a knife. They all have weapons because they all learned how to use them well before we all set off. Well, technically Garren was working as a woodcutter, but he knows how to handle an axe well enough to get by. My dad was actually a martial artist and taught me quite a bit with unarmed combat, as well as using knives, so I'm far from helpless in a fight. Still, I don't think I need to tell you that learning how to properly use a weapon takes time and with all the travelling we've been doing, picking up a brand new weapon for myself just isn't a good idea right now. Aside from my dad's training, Ryo's the only one with formal combat training" She explained, though she clammed up a bit when she mentioned Ryo's training. Ryo just hoped it wouldn't be brought up again.

"Say, Ryo, what's your story? Haven't heard much from you since you four showed up." Sweet asked.

"It's tradition where I come from for youth was trained formally in unarmed combat and a weapon of choice, swordsmanship in my case. Circumstances forced me to start travelling a few years ago until I wound up in Woodfell. That's the town we all used to live in. I stayed there for two years, building up funds and resources so I could start travelling again when problems arose, and we all had to leave. That about brings us up to date." Ryo explained swiftly, not wanting to dwell on the topic. The crew seemed to realize that they accidentally struck a sore spot and shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm going to turn in for tonight." Ryo announced suddenly before standing up and heading back to their section of the camp.

"Actually, I'm with him. I'm pretty tired too." Audrey stated. Agreements sounded off and those who didn't partake of stew dumped their slop into the fire before leaving to pitch their tents. By the time the others made it back to their area, Ryo had already unrolled his bedding and had shut his eyes. They could tell he wasn't quite asleep, but they didn't bug him. He obviously wasn't in a good mood, and they would rather get some sleep after the crazy day than start a new conversation. As the rest of the camp got themselves sorted and the fires got put out, the group slowly drifted off to sleep, joining a choir of snores sounding through the chamber.

And yet, Ryo couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned in his bedroll, trying to get comfortable but peace eluded him. He tried meditation for a little while, but that also failed. Finally, he decided enough was enough and got to his feet, grabbing his sword and moving off to an area far enough from the camp that he was likely to go unnoticed. He drew his sword and took up a ready position before lunging forward with a stab before slashing to the right and following up with two diagonal slashes. He continued to go through motions and forms, precise and well-practiced. To finish, Ryo leapt into the air and spun before delivering a diagonal strike as he returned to the ground. Sweat beaded his forehead and he was short of breath. However, he did feel much better.

"Maybe now I can finally get some damn sleep…" Ryo murmured wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve before turning to leave. Suddenly though, he heard what sounded like movement. Instantly his guard was up, weapon at the ready. He crept forward, eyes scanning his surroundings. He could see perfectly well in the dark, making out all even the cracks on nearby stalagmites. He could see every individual tent. What he couldn't see though, was what had made that noise. If he'd heard it over the snoring, he was definitely concerned. Then he saw someone walking. Ryo prepared to charge but then he noticed it was only Milo with a flashlight, a garden spade and a roll of some kind. After a brief sigh of relief, Ryo start heading back to his camp when he noticed a few small, glowing pinpricks in the distance. They were floating about a bit erratically, like dust in the wind. Then he noticed a few of them near Milo, who seemed to be swatting at them before striking one with the spade, which promptly burst into flames. Then he noticed more of the small lights appearing, swarming out from the massive stone that had kept the chasm lit up since they arrived.

"That doesn't look good…" Ryo muttered before rushing back to his friends. Meanwhile, Milo was running for his damn fool life as a swarm of incendiary insects (based on the buzzing noise and the pattern of movement) pursued him into the camp. Milo was shouting about fire as he ran through the camp. Luckily, Ryo had managed to rouse the group from their slumber, and they managed to gather their essentials; abandoning their bedrolls and a few other items as they hurried to join the crew. Rourke made the smart call and called for an immediate evacuation across the bridge. The group immediately began booking it as fast as they could across the bridge, though they were quickly outstripped by a few of the transports. And then the explosions started. Ryo guessed that it was something that one of the rear transports was carrying, but either way they were in huge trouble. The bridge was starting to crumble away below them as they kept running, trying desperately to reach the other side. Unfortunately, that was not to be, and they soon found themselves tumbling through the air.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HOW WE GO OUT!" Garren shouted as the ground crumbled away beneath them. They were airborne for a few seconds, but they luckily hit a sloped edge that didn't cause them to break innumerous bones or leave them with horrendous, bleeding gashes. Instead, it seemed they lucked or (or not, depending on your point of view) and ended up slaloming through a natural vent of some kind that deposited them in the middle of a dark chamber. It was smaller, with no natural lighting, though that last bit came as comfort to Ryo, considering how they ended up here in the first place.

"Is everyone still alive?" He asked in a dazed voice as he staggered to his feet and tested his full range of motion. A couple of small bruises and twinges, but nothing serious or worth a potion. The chorus of groans he got in response was as satisfactory an answer as he suspected he'd get, so after helping them get to their feet, he drew his sword and started looking around for a way out. Luckily, there was another passage out and it wasn't another crazy slide, so they started heading down that way, with Veris providing light with her magic and Ryo leading the way, thanks to his night vision.

"Honestly, when the breach stone finally takes us home, I say we find somewhere to bury it." Barkos muttered as they continued through the tunnels. The others very much shared the sentiment.

"Say, where do you think we are? I mean, these tunnels are kind of strange, aren't they?" Veris pointed out. Barkos was quick to answer.

"My guess is that we're in a volcano of some kind. Our fall was softened by ash and the smoothness of the tunnels suggest that these were made by magma at some point. It's obviously been cold for a while, but we should still count ourselves lucky that the tunnel didn't drop us into a magma pool." Barkos replied. Ryo shuddered. That would have been a painful way to go.

However, his thoughts on their possible brushes with the reaper were shunted aside the moment he saw movement ahead, and he didn't need night vision to spot it. There were several people ahead who were wearing strange masks that were _glowing_ a vivid, bright blue. The style and color didn't match up with the Dread King's calling card, but Ryo still had his sword at the ready as his muscles tensed in anticipation of a fight.

However, it seemed they weren't interested in fighting, since as soon as they noticed Ryo and the others, they immediately bolted to the right! Ryo hurried forward, sword still ready as a precaution before turning a corner. It appeared that whoever they'd seen had bolted into a large tunnel, one that wasn't as ashen as the one Ryo and the others had been traversing earlier.

"Come on!" Ryo called to the others and they hurried down the passageway. They could see light at the other end, which only spurred them to quicken their pace. They emerged into a massive cavern that was mostly a water pool, though it had several rock steps that they were able to traverse with relative ease before they managed to traverse. They could hear a voice up ahead. A very familiar voice, in fact.

"Guys, I think that's Milo!" Garren guessed as they squeezed through a crack in the wall and discovered that it was indeed Milo who had been shouting a few moments ago.

"Good to see you're still alive!" Ryo commented as he clapped Milo on the shoulder before the moment was interrupted by the sound of Mole's digging machine breaking through the wall, though the moment began anew when the rest of the crew arrived and they were able to join them, since the crew and the group just realized why Milo had gone silent. Situated before them, on the other side of a mote of magma was a magnificent city, water rushing down from all sides of the island it sat on.

Of course, the moment was interrupted again when they heard something behind them, which turned out to be the same masked people that Ryo and the others had seen just a few minutes ago, all wielding weapons. Ryo immediately readied his sword as Barkos nocked an arrow, Garren hefted his axe and Veris readied her knife, small embers dancing around her offhand fingers in preparation for magic.

"There just can't be a moment of peace, can there…" Ryo muttered as he waited for the newcomers to make the first move. They'd been through too much today to die here and by whatever gods were out there, they'd survive this no matter how messy it got.

However, it seemed that it wouldn't come to that, as the leader started talking to them in a strange dialect. At the start, it sounded remarkably familiar to Ryo, though there were a few distinctions that prevented proper translation.

"I think it's talking to you." Mole commented to Milo, tugging on his sleeve as he did so. Milo hesitantly stepped forward and started doing his best to communicate, with the stranger removing the enormous mask to reveal a human woman, roughly in her twenties by Ryo's estimate, underneath.

"_At least they aren't with the Dread King, so far as we can tell."_ Ryo thought to himself as Milo kept trying. There were a few ups and downs, but there was a lucky break when it turned out that the woman apparently spoke a number of languages, including the one from Mole's home country apparently, as evidenced when he attempted to tell her something, which Ryo assumed she understood based on the way she slugged him in the face afterwards.

"I like her!" Sweet declared, applauding as he did so.

"I concur." Barkos quipped.

"About time someone hit him. I'm just sorry it wasn't me." Audrey added. The groups began conversing in a variety of languages while Audrey, Rourke and Audrey started talking in an undertone. Meanwhile, Ryo was keeping his distance, opting to observe instead. After Rourke explained the situation and adding a little bit about 'coming in peace' that sounded a bit corny to Ryo, the apparent leader of the newcomers grinned and gestured to the island in the distance.

"Welcome, to the city of Atlantis!" She announced with obvious enthusiasm. Ryo didn't know whether the enthusiasm was infectious, or if it was just the concept of finally getting some down time after the day's insanity, but he couldn't help but smile a bit. Finally, this journey was nearing a temporary end.

* * *

**And that's where we'll leave it for today! Yeah, it's going to be **_**another **_**three parter, but not much I can do about that. At least I know it'll be finishing up next time. And oh, how fun will that be.**

**Creativity: This got done quicker than I expected.**

**Author: We've been finding good time to work. Oh hey, you're not complaining this time!**

**Creativity: Better pacing for getting the chapters done will do that for ya. **

**Author: Yeah. This one took us… Give me a sec… Almost a week! Yeah, definitely thought it'd take longer.**

**So, when chapter 16 is finished, I'll have four weeks worth of chapters done before chapter 9 even goes live, which feels pretty cool. That's eight chapters total that I've got ready for you all, and after a Sora chapter or two, we'll be ready for the grand finale, followed by a little teaser for the next season!**

**Creativity: And possibly, **_**possibly **_**a mini series to accompany the second season. Either that or we'll just work it into the season 2, maybe to replace the Sora chapters. **

**Well, guess we'll end it here for now! Hope you enjoyed, please review, hope to see you on Discord and I'll see you on Saturday!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Good Day everyone! I hope this weekend treats you well! **

**Creativity: And if not, hopefully this will brighten it a bit.**

**Author: So, in case the memo wasn't received, we're extending **_**another **_**world to **_**another **_**three part mini-arc, because apparently, I can't leave well enough alone from this stuff.**

**Creativity: Well, probably the two chapter one chapter switching system is helping.**

**Author: Maybe, but I don't wanna get sick of this story the way the Godzilla one got to me at the end.**

**But enough of the sad stuff! Let's answer the reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: Kida's the lady, yeah. It'd been a while since I saw it and had to make due with YouTube, but I think I did alright. As for the whole power thing, all will be revealed in time.**

**And that's all the reviews! Now then, as I mentioned before, we're doing a part 3 for the Atlantis world and it will REMAIN a part 3! I don't care how long it is, I am NOT going to a part 4 with it!**

**Creativity: Ooh, this could get ugly…**

**Author: And once that's done, I write chapter 20 for Limit Breaker, then I have one or two relaxing Sora chapters to write… nice and easy Sora chapters…**

**Seriously, when I started this, I thought the Sora chapters were going to be harder to write, but it's completely flipped. At least since I finished the first eight chapters anyway.**

**We'll be doing a brief time jump since we've kept to the movie script pretty tight so far, and I'm pretty eager to get to the fun part of this mini arc.**

**Creativity: Plus, you want to get to the big fight scene in Limit Breaker…**

**Author: Quiet, you.**

**Anyway, I think that's enough from me… Oh wait! Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Alright then, without further ado, I present chapter 16 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"Please tell me we're there already…"

"How can you say it like that?! We're about to set foot in the _lost city of Atlantis!"_

"After today, I just want decent rest. That's all I ask for…"

Even if no one else was saying, Ryo could tell that his sentiment was shared by more than just a few of the remaining crew. The last leg of the journey to Atlantis had been long, but relatively uneventful when held up against _literally everything else_ that had led up to it. That everything else had really put a bit of a damper on Ryo's enthusiasm, especially considering that the four of them didn't have the same vested interest in finding Atlantis. Hell, they'd kept quiet on not really knowing the significance of Atlantis since they'd got here. That wasn't to say that hadn't figured a fair bit out from the submarine, resources and the route they'd taken to get to this point. It was just hard to really comprehend the importance of the expedition without some background on Atlantis and its significance to the culture above ground. At least to Ryo. He couldn't speak for the others.

After a couple more minutes of walking over bridges that Ryo didn't exactly trust the structural integrity of, they finally stepped foot on solid ground. Now that Ryo wasn't so preoccupied with making sure he didn't accidentally step on a bad board, he turned his attention to the surrounding architecture of the city. He couldn't place it, at least at first, but a good deal of the architecture looked oddly familiar to him, though it felt as though it should be bigger. Plus, it looked too overgrown. Then it clicked and Ryo felt a pang of sadness, followed by fear as he recalled the last time he'd seen architecture similar to this.

"Hey, you alright?"

Ryo turned to look at Garren, who had nudged his shoulder and was looking at him with concern. Ryo nodded.

"I'm fine. Just tired." Ryo replied quickly. Garren didn't seem convinced, but he let it drop. The woman who had been leading the Atlanteans they encountered before, Kida he believed she called herself, had brought them before what Ryo assumed was the leader of the Atlanteans. He was quite old and by the look of his eyes, Ryo guessed the man was blind. Still, Ryo had the sneaking suspicion that, assuming the man was blind, that wasn't much of a detriment to him.

After they came to a halt, Ryo politely bowed before Kida began speaking to the leader in Atlantean. Once again, the language was just familiar enough for Ryo to at least get a sense of the conversation. Well, better than others present. It was rather obvious that the king wasn't happy with Kida's decision to lead them to the city. Still, it at least sounded like they weren't going to die, so there was that. After the king put an end to the current conversation, Rourke took it as an opportunity to try and talk to the king, however the king wouldn't hear any of it. However, Ryo had tuned Rourke out to examine the architecture more. The more he looked at it, the more subtle differences he noticed. The scale was different for one, though that was obvious. It more lay in how the structures were decorated, as well as the Atlantean's use of more rounded surfaces. It was almost spooky how similar the Atlantean alphabet was to the runes that Barkos used to seal the portal.

"You, young one."

Ryo's attention was pulled back to the king when he heard the man's voice directed at him.

"Yes, your majesty?" Ryo inquired. He wasn't sure what honorific was best used, so he defaulted to a generic one.

"I wish to speak with you… Alone…" The king declared. This caught all present by surprise, especially Kida, though she didn't protest. Instead, she guided the rest away, leaving Ryo alone with the king. There were several moments of silence before the king took a deep breath.

"You bring conflict with you, young one. You and all your kind." The king stated. Ryo frowned.

"My apologies your majesty, but I don't understand what you're saying." Ryo answered. That wasn't quite a lie either. He had a possible inkling, but he wasn't positive.

"It has been many an age since your kind walked this world. I was but a young boy when the horrors of your war came to a head and you all vanished. It was a long time before I truly understood what had been unleashed from that conflict, and by then it was too late." The king explained. Ryo didn't understand in full what the king was saying, but he still felt a hint of dread nonetheless.

"And now a group of outsiders comes to our city and among them walks you. I wonder if this is a sign of something to come, or a reminder of what was. Whatever it may be, I don't believe your arrival here is a coincidence." The king continued, concern evident in his voice, but still with an undercurrent of tiredness. Ryo frowned.

"With all due respect your majesty, I can't help but feel you're talking circles around this. What do you want?" He asked, trying to keep his own tone of voice respectful. The king sighed and eased himself back in his throne.

"This is not a case of what I want, and your confusion indicates you do not know of what I speak. Or is you do know, but do not wish to know?" The king replied before a coughing fit. After it subsided, the king reached into his robe and removed something. It looked like a cut and framed gemstone, similar to the ones that all the other Atlanteans that Ryo had seen so far also wore. However, it was much cleaner cut, and it was framed in gold.

"The atrocities of that war so long ago still haunt the world to this very day. Perhaps you were brought here to make amends, or simply to learn of them. I cannot say. All I know is that this key unlocks a pathway to a truth that lies within Atlantis." The king told him before offering the key. Ryo took it gingerly, as if he was handling something that could explode in his hands at any moment.

"Why are you giving me this?" Ryo asked. The king leaned back on his throne.

"The truth I spoke of now lies within your grasp. Now the only question that remains is if you have the courage to seek it. Now go. Return to your friends. Leave an old man to his rest…" The king replied before moving to lie down on his seat. However, as Ryo turned to leave, the king spoke once more.

"You asked why I gave you that key. Perhaps I feel its place is with you. Perhaps I wish to keep others from it. Or perhaps I believe that I may atone in some small way for failings long since past. I do not know myself. So, what are you going to do?" The king asked him before returning to his rest. Ryo didn't answer as he walked back out of the section of ruins that constituted a throne room. After he passed by, Kida went to visit the king. Ryo had hidden the 'key' that the king had given him in his tunic so as to not attract attention to himself before tracking down Veris, Garren and Barkos.

"What took you so long?" Garren asked as they followed a guide back to where the crew was being permitted to stay.

"The king just wanted to ask about some of the weird stuff we've been dealing with. Nothing major." Ryo answered. He felt bad about lying to them, but whatever 'truth' that the king had been talking about, Ryo knew enough to know that it was for him alone, at least for now.

"Well, hopefully we don't have to deal with any more of that. After that group we took out, as well as that knight, hopefully they'll think twice before they send more of those monsters here. Besides, I'll bet the Atlanteans have all sorts of stuff to keep those monsters out." Barkos commented before they reached the place where they'd bed down for the night. After getting themselves set up for the evening the group started preparing to cook, only to be interrupted when a small group of Atlanteans showed up and informed them that they were invited to dinner.

"Well, more rations preserved that way. Plus, we don't have the crew hounding us for alternatives to that gunk they were fed last night." Veris noted as they were led to the dinner in question. It took place in a large tent of sorts and the food was a stew or soup of some kind. When they arrived, they saw Kida and Milo deep in discussion. She waved them over and gestured to four seats next to her and Milo. Once they were comfortably seated they were provided with bowls of some kind of soup. Ryo was unsure about it at first, but after tasting it he found it was actually pretty good and started digging in with gusto, though he was careful to not come across as rude or a slob.

"Say, Ryo, have you guys introduced yourselves to Kida?" Milo asked as he ate another spoonful of soup. Ryo shook his head.

"I haven't exactly been 'present' since we started crossing those rope bridges. Sorry about that." Ryo answered.

"Yeah, that was a mistake on our part. Well, my name's Veris." Veris introduced herself, followed by Garren and Barkos.

"I'm Ryo. It's an honor." Ryo greeted last, though he wasn't quite all there. His mind kept turning back to the 'key' that the king had given him. The more he thought about the key and the supposed 'truth' the king had spoken of associated with it, the more unsettled he became. Just what was the king trying to tell him?

His eating slowed as the minutes passed until eventually it came to a stop. He wasn't feeling hungry anymore. Setting his bowl down in front of him and rubbing his forehead, Ryo had the sneaking suspicion that he probably wouldn't be getting any sleep that night either.

"… Right, Ryo?"

"Hmm?" Ryo responded, looking up. It had been Garren speaking to him.

"I was just telling these two about how crazy our lives get on the road." Garren told Ryo before tilting his head in concern.

"You alright? You're only halfway through the soup and you don't look very happy." Garren asked.

"It's nothing, I'm probably just tired. I think I'll turn in early tonight." Ryo replied before getting up and stretching. After that, he politely excused himself and made his way out of the tent.

"You think something's wrong with him?" Barkos asked as they watched him leave.

"I mean, things have been kind of awkward since we confronted him in the hospital. It could just be that." Veris suggested.

"I guess we haven't really talked about that since. It feels like he's drifting from us a bit." Garren mentioned in a concerned tone of voice.

"We did open some old wounds. He's probably just working through it." Veris continued before downing another spoonful of soup. Barkos frowned.

"I'm not sure. I mean, things weren't exactly great after we left Radiant Garden, but ever since he met with the king he's been acting weird. I think he might be hiding something." Barkos muttered as he slowly stirred his own bowl with a spoon. Veris' eyes widened at Barkos' words.

"Why would you even say that?! What would he be hiding?" She questioned. Barkos' frown deepened.

"You mean _what else_ would he be hiding. He kept it a secret that he knew magic and that he could read runes. What else has he not told us?" Barkos argued back. Veris glared back at him.

"You know damn well why he kept that to himself. I can't imagine what kind of torture it would be to have my magic suddenly just be… gone. He's been carrying that hurt with him for _years!_" She growled back at Barkos, who's features softened as a look of guilt passed over his face.

"Sorry… Yeah, that was out of line. I don't know, I just feel like he's still hiding something and it's bothering me. We're his friends, and he shared the circumstances of how he got to the village. Does he not trust us?" Barkos confessed. Veris frowned as she looked down into her own bowl, which was empty.

"I… I sort of get what you mean. I can't help but feel he's keeping something from us, but I don't think he's doing it out of mistrust. Lately he just seems really conflicted and lost. Something's bothering him and I don't think he knows how to deal with it, so he's keeping his mouth shut about it until he can figure out." Veris suggested, though there was more than a note of worry in her voice.

"I guess that makes sense, but that just makes me more worried. What if whatever he's dealing with has to do with all these monster encounters we've been dealing with or something similarly dangerous to us, like this Dread King business or those gates we ran into? Don't you think we should know about stuff like this?" Barkos countered, though there was a shakiness in it, suggesting that he didn't fully buy into the words spilling out of his own mouth.

"Well, whatever he's dealing with, I hope he gets a handle on it soon. The way things have been since Radiant Garden..." Veris started but didn't have the heart to finish. It was obvious that things hadn't been the same since Radiant Garden, and not in a good way. They could only hope that things would get better from there.

* * *

Meanwhile, after left the tent where dinner had hosted, Ryo went back to the group's section of the camp and sat down before rubbing his face with both hands.

"What do I do?" Ryo groaned to himself as he tried to clear his head. Why was this bothering him so much? What harm could this supposed 'truth' do to him or anyone else? It wasn't like he had to worry about trespassing, either. The king himself had given him this key and told him whatever 'truth' it led to was in Atlantis, or close to it. He had nothing to fear in that regard.

"So why am I still sitting here agonizing over this?" Ryo growled to himself as he quickly rose to his feet in frustration and began pacing. The restless energy constantly travelling through his nerves was maddening. Why was this bothering him so much? How could one trinket from an old man cause him so much stress? What was wrong with him?! He wanted answers! The only thing he wanted in this moment were answers! Answers! Why couldn't he have answers?!

Ryo's fingers curled into fists around his hair as he kept pacing before releasing them and staring at them before he finally snapped and slammed a fist against a pillar! He was breathing heavily as he glared at the ground. The muscles in his arm slackened and the limb fell limp against his side.

Answers. He needed answers.

As the stress and anger slowly ebbed away, he took a deep breath and started fishing around in his tunic before retrieving the 'key' and looking at it more closely. Now that the light was slowly beginning to dim, he could see that the stone in fact was glowing a bit. As he started walking back to the camp site while examining it, he noticed that depending on where he was looking the stone glowed brighter, specifically when looking northwest of his current position. After taking a quick look around, Ryo set out walking in a general northwestern direction, occasionally checking to see the key's glow changed as he moved. As he kept walking, he found himself heading into the outskirts of the city, then finding himself crossing the threshold of the city limits. As he kept going the key continued to glow brighter and brighter until he noticed it was dimming instead of glowing brighter. Ryo paused and started turning, trying to find the right direction to go in until he noticed the glow was brighter when aimed at what looked like a small collection of decrepit ruins.

"Why am I not surprised…?" Ryo muttered as he strode over to the ruins and began examining them, trying to find something that could correspond to the key. He could see a few spots among the ruins that still had fragments of old carvings, though whatever they were supposed to be of was anyone's guess now.

What really confused Ryo was that even though Atlantis had obviously seen better days, given the cracks and pant growth on their architecture, these ruins were in exceptionally bad shape. It could have had something to do with their distance from the main city, but Ryo suspected something else was at play. Or had been, as the case may be, or may have been.

"Come on, what am I looking for…?" Ryo murmured as he kept looking until he noticed that the key was shining exceptionally bright when he held it up to a particularly overgrown section of wall. After brushing the foliage aside, Ryo found a small indentation in the wall, perfectly sized for the key. Ryo took a deep breath.

"Well, here goes nothing." He declared under his breath before he pressed the key into place, caution and anticipation travelling through his nerves.

This was followed by several moments of silence that fostered a sense of deflation in Ryo, at least until the ground started shaking. Several loose stones in the ruins clattered and fell to the ground as the largest section of intact stone floor began to rumble and shift, opening up to reveal a dark passageway. There was no light, but that wouldn't be a problem for Ryo. Drawing his sword, he stepped down into the passageway.

"Where could he have gone?!"

Veris, Garren and Barkos were all in varying stages of panic due to the conspicuous lack of one Ryo. They hadn't started that way when they got back. They expected he'd gone off somewhere to destress with some sword practice. They were aware enough that he trained by himself whenever he couldn't sleep or was otherwise restless. Or, they figured it was Garren's more likely suggestion, and he had left to relieve himself. Unfortunately, the light had dimmed quite a bit, and no one appeared to know where he was. They'd asked a few Atlanteans if they'd seen him, but they'd only apologized and said they hadn't seen him.

"I know he was acting a bit weird, but I didn't think he'd just go missing!" Barkos exclaimed as they frantically tried to figure out where he may have gone.

"Is some'sing ze matter?"

The group spun to see Mole standing nearby. He appeared to have been on his way back to the crew's section of the camp.

"You could say that, yes! Ryo's gone and no one we've asked seems to know where he is!" Veris replied near hysterically.

"Oh, zat is all? I'm pretty sure I saw him heading northwest not too long ago." Mole replied before starting to walk off, only for Garren to grab him by the back of his jacket, spin him around and seize him by the shoulders.

"You saw him?! What was he doing?!" Garren demanded.

"Woah, easy there!"

Garren turned to see Sweet hurrying over, followed by Audrey and Vinny, though they had a slower gait than the doctor.

"Ryo's gone missing and Mole says he saw him heading off somewhere." Veris quickly explained. Sweet's eyes widened a bit in recognition.

"Oh yeah. I noticed him pacing around your campsite, seemed pretty worked up about something. He okay?" Sweet asked. Veris stared at the ground, hugging herself a bit.

"Honestly, I don't know." She murmured.

"Well, If Mole said he was going northwest, it shouldn't be too hard to find him. Let's go!" Sweet declared. The others looked up in surprise, including Vinny and Audrey.

"Wait, what? Rourke wants us back at camp soon. You know he's not going to be happy if we're late.

"Ah, we're not in a big rush. Besides, I think Rourke can manage without us for a little while." Sweet replied easily. Veris, Garren and Barkos looked ready to collapse from relief. Audrey looked skeptical but decided to along with it. However, Vinny remained unconvinced.

"Eh, not sure I wanna get on Rourke's bad side, especially now. Besides, he wanted us all assembled at camp by dark, and it's getting pretty close to it." Vinny pointed out.

"If you're alright leaving a kid out there, then that's fine by me, Vinny. Tell you what, you and Audrey go back to Rourke and explain why we're gone and that we won't be long. Me and Mole will go help look for the kid." Sweet proposed.

"And why exactly are you two going?" Audrey asked, though Sweet was quick to answer.

"Mole will be able to track him if we can find a trail, and I'm going in case the kid needs medical attention." Sweet answered smoothly.

"Well, it's your head." Vinny responded before he and Audrey turned around and began to head back to the crew's camp.

"Alright, let's go find your friend." Sweet declared.

* * *

If Ryo never had to deal with underground tunnels again, he'd die happy. Between the catacombs beneath Radiant Garden, the lunacy involved in getting to Atlantis and now this, he was sick of spelunking of any variety.

He'd reached the bottom of the stairwell a couple of minutes ago and was now working his way down a winding, strangely smooth tunnel. It had gone centuries without use, but its structural integrity was holding well. Additionally, he could see glyphs carved into the walls occasionally. He wasn't sure what they meant, seemingly being random words that were haphazardly carved about the tunnel walls.

"If the 'truth' that the king was talking about is how much I hate the underground, I am going to have a _very _long conversation with him." Ryo muttered before he rounded a corner and stopped short. Scattered about in the corridor ahead were several humanoid bones, though nothing that looked even partially complete. The only reason he knew it was humanoid was because of the few semi-intact skulls scattered about.

Ryo steeled his nerves and continued down the corridor, taking care to avoid stepping on the bones as he continued. The carvings on the walls continued, though there was a noticeable difference. The random words had stopped and now it was one word over and over again: Anguish.

Ryo frowned as he continued down the corridor until he saw what looked like the end. Picking up his pace (and wincing at the sound of a few old bones snapping under his boots), Ryo reached the end of the tunnel to find himself in a large stone chamber that was mostly composed of stone brick, sans the ceiling. There were also a few semi-intact skeletons laying around, just to add to the atmosphere.

"What is this…" Ryo breathed, unsure of what this was all building up to. As he looked around, he could see that the stonework was impeccable, even if it was obviously a few millennia old. Additionally, he could see the Anguish rune was still carved all over the place in this damn room.

"Damn it, what does anguish have to do with this?!" Ryo exclaimed in a fit of frustration as he began to pace about. What was so special about these damn ruins?! Why would the king send him here?! What, what this all some elaborate prank?! With a frustrated shout, Ryo angrily slammed his fist against the stone wall. And then something strange happened.

A few of the stone bricks near the one Ryo had struck began to faintly glow purple. It was difficult to notice at first, but once Ryo noticed it, his eyes widened. The glowing segments of the bricks were in the form of runes. There were six in total, positioned in a hexagonal arrangement and after careful consideration, Ryo pressed the one positioned at the bottom. The whole room began to shudder as the brick wall began to shift and move. However, years of inactivity appeared to have damaged the mechanism, which Ryo found strange considering how well everything else had held up so far. It didn't change the fact that the bricks were instead shaking and falling to the ground as the newly revealed hidden door collapsed, open to the world forevermore.

Ryo edged closer to the opening and looked down it. His instincts immediately told him to turn back. He wasn't sure what awaited him at the end of the tunnel, but he could sense a… a foulness for lack of a better term coming from the passage. However, despite the warning signs and his own instincts, Ryo stepped into this new corridor and pressed onward. This time, there were no carvings. No skeletons or bones of any kind. In some ways, that was disconcerting to Ryo, but his legs never ceased carrying him forward. He wasn't sure what awaited him at the end, but he knew he had to face it, whatever it was.

As it turned out, what awaited him at the end was simultaneously a bit of a letdown and rather disconcerting. He'd reached yet another stone chamber, though this one was littered with old weapons strange make, a few fully intact skeletons and a large, leather-bound book that was clutched in the arms of one of the skeletons. Ryo gingerly removed the book from the skeleton's hands and examined it. According to the runes on the cover, it was some sort of record of war.

"This can't be what he was talking about…" Ryo muttered as he leafed through the pages. They'd held up extremely well, considering the… less than sanitary conditions they'd been kept in. Even if the pages felt a little bit brittle, they still flexed well enough that Ryo didn't feel that they'd fall apart if he strained them too much.

"_War ongoing for seven months now, heavy losses suffered at The First Peak, something stirring in the Black Spire,_ what does this all mean?" Ryo muttered as he read aloud a few passages from the early pages. After skimming a few more pages, he finally got impatient and jumped ahead many pages until he saw a large, crudely drawn rune. However, it was unmistakeable.

"_Anguish… even now it invades our minds and drags us down… We are betrayed… Abandoned… Agony is vanquished but the others have fled, leaving the World and those left behind to the mercy of these horrors we brought upon ourselves… We cannot run… We cannot hide… We cannot even fight… We can only wait to die and hope that others may find a way to bring down these calamities… Anguish… Anguish comes for us now… it comes for us all…" _Ryo read aloud.

"What does that mean…?" Ryo murmured to himself, though the dread slowly building in his stomach told him that he probably already had a good idea of what it meant.

"Yeah, what does that mean?"

Ryo whirled around, blade raised between himself and the source of the voice before he felt his stomach drop when he saw that the source was Barkos, who was accompanied by Garren, Veris, Mole and Sweet.

"Ryo, what's going on here?" Veris asked.

"I'm not sure…" Ryo began to answer, only for Barkos to cut him off.

"Oh, cut that out. How did you get down here? How did you know that this even existed?!" Barkos demanded as he stormed into the room. The others followed him in, though they weren't nearly as aggressive as Barkos was.

"The king of Atlantis gave me something he called a key and told me it would lead me somewhere. That somewhere was here." Ryo answered, though he could tell that Barkos wasn't satisfied with that answer.

"What is this place?" Veris asked as she looked around, holding a torch up.

"As best I can figure out, it was an outpost of sorts during a war." Ryo explained as he slipped the book he'd been examining into his tunic.

"What, an Atlantean outpost? Who were they fighting?" Garren asked, though Ryo shook his head.

"It isn't Atlantean. The architecture and the writing are similar, but there's too many differences for it to have been Atlantean." Ryo answered, only for Barkos to interject.

"Then who did this outpost belong too? And how do you know all this?!" Barkos demanded to know as he marched up to Ryo, who had been looking around the room before his gaze looked past his angered friend and his eyes went wide. He rushed forward and shoved Barkos aside before swinging his sword upward! There was a metallic clang and a flash of sparks before something metal hit the ground. That something was a familiar looking flail end, attached to a very long length of chain that ran into the darkness of the tunnel. Ryo snarled as the flail was yanked back into the darkness and two figures stepped forward into the torchlight. All eyes widened, save for Ryo's, who's were narrowed and slightly fearful. Standing before them were two figures dressed head to toe in very familiar blue armor and masks. The shorter one had the metal flail (more akin to a whip) and was currently twitching its hand a bit, causing the business end of the weapon to spin, probably out of confidence or for intimidation. Ryo didn't particularly care which. This was probably the worst place for them to be right about now. With the confined space and only one wait out, they were at a disadvantage. On the plus side, that whip would be difficult to use in such a confined area as well. Not that it meant anything if they couldn't get out.

As everyone realized the trouble and went for their weapons, the whip wielder stepped forward until they were just a toe from crossing the threshold of tunnel to chamber and flicked their wrist, sending the flail end of the whip into the air. Dark blue energy with hints of black ran along the chain and collected within the flail head before the figure swung their arm down, sending the whip crashing into the ground. There was a loud crack as the energy sent out a shockwave that shook the room! There was stillness for a moment before the figure tugged the whip chain back to their hand. Then the distinct sound of stone cracking began to build in the room. Dread began to fill Ryo as he realized what the figure had just done. However, before he could shout a warning, the floor crumbled away, and they all fell into the inky darkness below.

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it! So, yeah, I kind of have to go back on my statement that it was going to be a 3 parter, since this was going to turn into too long of a chapter otherwise. As in, minimum 8000 words and I am not ready to sink THAT much into one chapter. So, we're splitting it up. Means the next one can be a bit more detailed in some regards.**

**Creativity: THE PAIN! MAKE IT STOP!**

**Author: Yeah, maybe get him something for his legs…**

**So, to be honest, I don't have much to say here. I'm just really tired. This thing took WAAAY longer to write than I thought, and the arc was supposed to be done with this chapter. But it isn't, so I'm just feeling a little tuckered out. **

**However, considering I decided to end the chapter where I did, I have at least 2K words squirreled away for chapter 17, so that one is gonna be a lot nicer to write. And **_**then **_**we get the nice, simple and not at all stressful Sora chapter(s). **

**Creativity: CUT OFF MY LEGS! CUT THEM OFF OR I WILL CHEW THEM OFF!**

**Author: Woah, WOAH! RESTRAIN HIM! QUICK!**

**Sorry about that, I gotta go sort this out. I hope you all enjoyed, please review, I hope to see you on the Discord server and I'll see you next Tuesday!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Good day to you all, and welcome to chapter 17 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

**Creativity: Oh god, WHY DID YOU NOT TAKE MY LEGS LIKE A PLEADED FOR?!**

**Author: Ignore him, he knows not what he says.**

**Anyway, like I mentioned last chapter, we decided to go from a three part arc to a four part arc, because last chapter was just chewing up WAY too much creative energy.**

**Creativity: AND MY LEGS! **

**Author: SOOO, we decided to migrate a bunch of part three to a part four for the sake of our sanity. Or what remains of it in Creativity's case. But this is it! I promise! I don't know how we could go to a part five at this point.**

**But before I go further into that, let's get the review responses out of the way:**

**Disney Boy: Not a bad idea for a sequel, but there's not even any keyblades yet, never mind the first war. Again though, good sequel idea.**

**CeleneTheAngel: Like I said in private messaging, I've been leaving details scattered about to draw a picture of what the nasties are, though the Dread King isn't going to get much explanation until season 2. As for Veris and Barkos own reactions to what's going on, well... You'll see.**

**Creativity: Oh, and I'm the result of an experimental procedure to allow me to physically manifest from the confines of the author's mind! It's pretty tricky though. I heard a story about a failed attempt where they accidentally got someone's id... It didn't end well...**

**Author: No, no it did not.**

**Alright, now with that done, let's get back to what I was saying before. So, like I said, this is going to be it for the Atlantis arc. After this, we're going to do at least one Sora chapter, maybe two so that Sora doesn't feel too left out, then we'll do the finale to season 1 and a possible teaser for season 2.**

**Also, season 2 is probably gonna take a while. Before: KH has expanded WAY more than what I initially thought, and I'll need to take more time to plot everything out. Plus, I don't know what worlds I'm going to use yet. Ah, it'll be fine. It's not gotten nearly as bad as the end of AVBI got. So, with that out of the way, I'll provide the Discord password:**

**And now… **_**ahem…**_** I now proudly present chapter 17 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

As Ryo and the others fell through the air, followed by shards of stone from the broken floor, he couldn't help but feel he'd royally screwed up. He'd let his confusion and frustration get the better of him, took off on his own in a desperate attempt to find answers without telling anyone, and when they went looking for him, they found their way down here, apparently along with the Dread King's servants, and now they were falling into a cavern, possibly to their deaths. Yeah, he'd definitely screwed up.

Luckily it appeared that they hadn't fallen very far, and they landed in yet more ash, so the fall was far less damaging than it could have been. However, that didn't change the fact that they were now completely lost, and possibly trapped underground.

Ryo groaned as he slowly got to his feet, trying to ignore his sore, well, everything as he looked around at their new surroundings. Things had gone from bad to worse in the span of a few seconds, what with the fact that Ryo could see no way of climbing their way out. Besides, even if they could, there was still the likelihood that those two were waiting up there for them to finish them off. However, there was one possible saving grace: a tunnel to his right. There was no telling if it would get them out of here, but it was better than nothing.

By this point, the others were just about on their feet, and were realizing that they had absolutely no vision down here.

"Guys, anyone know where the torches are?" Veris asked.

"I can't find them. Veris, time to ditch discretion." Ryo called back to her.

"You sure?" She inquired, sounding unsure.

"No point in keeping it hidden now, especially if those two come down here after us." Barkos reasoned. Veris frowned but didn't argue this time. Conjuring up a decent-sized flame in her palm, she held it aloft and filled the room with firelight. Needless to say, Sweet and Mole were very surprised by this turn of events.

"Wait, are you holding fire? How are you holding fire?!" Sweet exclaimed as Mole was hiding behind Sweet, hissing like a badger.

"It's uhh… It's magic." Veris answered. Ryo could see a million questions coming and decided to stop that before it started. They needed to get out of here.

"There's a tunnel over here. Hopefully it leads out of this pla…" Ryo started before he stepped on something that didn't feel like a rock or bone. Looking down, he realized that much of the ground was littered with weapons that had been half-buried beneath the ash.

"What are these doing here…?" Ryo muttered as he reached down felt the ground, finding the grip of a sword. Prying it loose, he was astounded by how light it was, given its size. From the tip of the blade to the pommel, the weapon was almost as long as Ryo was tall. It was single edged, and the tip wasn't terribly rounded, with the blade continuing down to form a guard over the top of the blade, though the blade was rounded and dulled at the guard. And yet, the thing weighed hardly more than a common dagger and it's balance was practically perfect!

As he looked around, he could see many more weapons littering the ground. Swords, axes, flails, maces, spears, polearms of all kinds, shields, it was practically a castle armory down there.

"This was more than an outpost… This was a full-blown fortress." Ryo realized as he looked around. But the weapons didn't make any sense. Why would they need to forge this many weapons if…?

"What is that?!"

Ryo's train of thought was interrupted when he heard Garren shouting. Looking to where Garren was pointing, his heart leapt into his throat as he saw dark blue and black energy drifting down from the opening in the ceiling to the ground in large clusters. Once they hit the ground, the areas they touched started to shake. The ash began to froth and bubble like a liquid before the rock beneath burst, revealing a skeletal hand with damaged armor clinging to the limb. The air was filled with the sound of cracking as more limbs forced themselves out of the ash and stone. And then followed the rest of them. The skeletons were remarkably intact, but what was really haunting about them was the dark blue and black energy that clung to them and also appeared as sparks in the empty eye sockets of their skulls. However, there was one more thing that terrified Ryo above all else. The skeletons hunched over as energy began to spark from their shoulder blades as dark blue skeletal wings erupted from the bone plates, the same energy that had seemingly reanimated them taking the place of connecting tissue between the 'fingers' of the wings. The skeletons wrenched the weapons they could reach out of the ground and began to stalk towards the group.

"Form up!" Ryo shouted as the group quickly gathered together, weapons drawn. Ryo handed his old sword off to Veris, who was surprised, but didn't argue as she swiped it at the nearest skeleton, splitting its skull! Ryo readied his new blade and delivered a horizontal slash that cut through several of the skeletons. However, something strange happened and the energy that clung to the old bones suddenly got sucked into the blade before dissipating.

"Killing them isn't working!" Garren shouted. Ryo turned to see that Garren was right. The skeletons his friends cut down weren't staying down, instead reforming back to normal after they were destroyed.

"They're staying down when I… That's it! You need to use these weapons to kill them!" Ryo called out to them before quickly moving to cut down another group of skeletons. Heeding his advice, they quickly went to grab weapons from the skeletons that Ryo had already destroyed, with Garren and Sweet each getting an axe, Barkos and Veris grabbing short swords and Mole grabbing a pair of knives, which he then proceeded to swing about like a maniac while cackling. It was probably a good idea to just leave him to it as he started to carve a not so bloody canyon through the skeleton forces. However, despite Mole's apparent talent for battling armies of the undead, they were still losing ground and being forced back. Even Veris' magic wasn't enough to turn the tide and they were all starting to panic.

"We need to get to that tunnel!" Ryo shouted as he dodged a warhammer and stabbed the skeleton wielding it through the face.

"We can't break through!" Garren replied as he smashed his way through several more of the skeletons. Things were getting really crowded and Ryo was starting to freak out. He'd come down here to find answers and his friends had come looking for him. He was the reason they were in this situation and now they were all going to die down here!

The skeletons pushed them back further and further. No matter how many they cut down there always seemed to be two more to fill in.

"Get back!" Ryo shouted as he cut down several more skeletons, but he only got shoved back with a shield before barely managing to block the jab of a spear that sent him stumbling back. Ryo got to his feet and angrily bared his teeth. He'd had enough of this! They hadn't survived all this only to die in a cave by the hands of the dead!

"I said GET BACK!" Ryo shouted as he gripped the sword with two hands and leapt forward, delivering a spinning horizontal slash! There was a loud crackle and a rush of wind as purple and black energy wrapped around the length of the blade before firing off in a wide arc that instantly carved its way through the skeletal army, all the way to the other side of the cavern! The army paused as it processed what had happened, and they weren't alone. Everyone was surprised by what Ryo had just done, but no one was more surprised by what had just happened by what had happened than Ryo himself. His gaze looked down at the sword to see that it had changed from its original silvery color to black and dashes of purple, energies of the same colors swirling around the blade. However, as the skeleton army gathered itself and started advancing again, Ryo closed his eyes. He felt strangely calm now. He slowly stood up straight and held the blade in front of him with two hands before his eyes snapped open and he let out a roar as he charged, delivering more slashes that created arcs of the dark energy that cut through the army like a hot knife through butter.

Having recovered from the shock, the rest of the group realized the massive opening they had and joined Ryo in a run for the tunnel they'd seen before, making it across the room and into the entrance as Ryo held the army back singlehandedly!

"Since when could your friend do that?!" Sweet asked as they made a break for it.

"Since now?! It's kind of confusing!" Veris answered as they hurried down the tunnel. After what felt like an eternity of running, they eventually stopped for a quick breather. However, they didn't get a long one as they heard the sound of approaching footsteps and were immediately on guard, weapons held at the ready. As the footsteps got closer though, they realized that it was one person and from out of the shadows stepped Ryo, chest heaving from exhaustion and blade held limply at his side. The energy had faded from around the blade, but not its new color.

"That was incredible! Does this mean…" Garren started, only for Ryo to stop him.

"No time for that now. We're not out of this yet." Ryo told him once he'd recovered enough strength.

"I managed to stop the skeletons, but there's still something else down here with us. We need to keep moving." Ryo told them before beginning to walk down the tunnel, only to be stopped when Barkos grabbed him by the arm.

"We need to talk." Barkos told him in a low tone of voice.

"We can do this later." Ryo replied before trying to pull his arm free, but Barkos held firm.

"We can do this now. You know something about this and neither of us are going anywhere until you spill." Barkos countered. Ryo glared at him.

"You cannot seriously want us to stay in one place after what that just happened. That's practically a death sentence." Ryo argued.

"Well then you better talk fast." Barkos growled. Ryo finally had enough.

"Look at where we are, Barkos! Are you going to risk condemning yourself, me and everyone else to death because you're too stubborn to put explanations aside until our lives aren't at risk? Are you really that so bullheaded?!" Ryo fired back, his voice raising as his tirade went on. Barkos opened his mouth to argue back, but Veris grabbed his shoulder and shook her head. Barkos stared at her for a moment before glaring at Ryo and letting his arm go.

"It's a certainty that there's more monsters down here. I don't know if there's more reanimated soldiers, but there's definitely something else in the tunnels with us. We need to stay sharp." Ryo stated before walking ahead, blade now resting on his shoulder. The rest of the group followed along in silence. Said silence felt heavier than the awkward silences they'd been dealing with since Radiant Garden, but no one dared break it. Both Veris and Garren were mildly concerned that things would just escalate all over again if someone was to try and strike up conversation. Besides, it wasn't exactly a good time and the situation was also concerning for a few other reasons. First off, there was Ryo's sudden eruption of what could only be his lost magic abilities. Lost until now, that was. None of them knew what to make of it. When Ryo had revealed he used to be able to use magic, they thought it would be more like Veris', though perhaps more varied. Instead, he had attacked the undead with some sort of shadowy energy, utterly decimating the enemy numbers with only a few swings of his blade! Then there was that sword he'd found. It was fairly obvious that his magic had somehow affected the blade, as it had been a dull, silvery color when he'd first pried it out of the ground. Now though, it was an inky black color with touches of purple along the sharp section of the blade and guard.

But all that aside, Veris and Garren were extremely worried about the group as a whole. They'd tried to be respectful of Ryo's privacy and to let him work things out so he could explain things when he was ready. However, it was starting to get out of hand. He'd ran off without warning or even a note, apparently lied to them about what he spoke to the king of Atlantis about, and when they went searching for him they found him in a decrepit old ruin, reading a book like it was outlining the details of his upcoming gruesome murder. Now Barkos was in an understandably foul mood due to the multiple counts of dishonesty on Ryo's part, coupled with the stress of their current situation… Well, needless to say that it felt like a disaster waiting to happen.

Well, hopefully they'd be able to get things back to some measure of normal after all this was over. With all the monsters that they'd been running into on this voyage, coupled with the danger of Dread King and his servants, they couldn't afford to split up or be divided like this.

Suddenly, Ryo came to a stop. He tensed and slowly readied his blade, the purple edge beginning to glow. The group was immediately on guard, but they weren't sure what Ryo was readying for.

"Can you hear that?" Ryo asked quietly as he adjusted his grip on the dark blade. They began straining their ears, trying to hear what Ryo was talking about. And then they heard it. A faint scraping noise was coming from further down the tunnel. It sounded like someone dragging something sharp across the stone walls of the caverns. The grips on their weapons tightened. Sweat began to bead on foreheads until Ryo suddenly lunged forward, running the source of the scraping through! They watched as there was a burst of dark blue and black energy that signified the death of one of those blue monsters. Veris could see its claws flailing as it died, allowing her to identify it as an imp. And by the sudden echoing cries from further down the tunnel, it was far from the only one. Ryo immediately rushed ahead, his new sword making short work of their numbers. And yet the cries were still heard almost as loudly… and getting louder… from behind…

"They're coming from behind!" Veris shouted before whirling around and launching several Fira spells down the tunnel as she readied her new sword for combat. It felt a little awkward in hand, but it was still an improvement over her knife.

With Ryo and Garren carving the pathway forward and everyone else holding the rear, they eventually made it to the end of the tunnel, which led into another large cavern. It was domed and didn't have an opening blown through the top, instead having a single stalactite hanging in the center of the cavern, so they at least knew they weren't going in circles. What's more, they'd dealt with the last of the imps, so they could get a breather, at least for now. They had no idea what other nasties could be waiting down here for them. As they took the brief respite to recover (and down an ether or two in the case of Veris), they realized that the room was actually quite well lit up. It was the fact that they could all see, despite Veris not providing any light via flame. However, the light source wasn't one of those strange insect nests that had burned down the camp and led to their first tumble into these godforsaken caverns. The source appeared to be several luminescent stones embedded in the walls of the cavern, similar in coloration to the stones that they'd seen the residents of Atlantis wearing. However, aside from that, Ryo didn't believe there was much connection between the Atlantean jewelry and these strange stones.

"We don't have long. There's probably more on the way." Ryo muttered as he scoped out the room. There were a couple other tunnels connected to this chamber aside from the one they'd just entered from. Luckily, the quiet indicated that there weren't more monsters coming their way, but Ryo was still on edge, blade twitching in his hand. He knew that the silence was inevitably going to be broken soon and he wanted to be ready when it did. In the meantime, they were now faced with a choice of which path to take. Unfortunately, Ryo couldn't see any signs of which pathway was most likely to get them out of here. There was no obvious incline or decline that he could see, even with his night vision, or any sign of a trail that they could use to make a decision on which one was a better choice.

"Because nothing can possibly be easy, can it…?" Ryo murmured before he started making his way back to the group.

"We should get moving." Ryo called to the group, prompting them to rise to their feet and start heading towards the tunnels. However, before they could even choose a tunnel, there was a crackling _SNAP _as dark blue and black energy erupted like flames in the tunnel entrances! The group backpedalled away from the tunnel in surprise before they heard the noise once more from behind, prompting them to whirl around, seeing that the tunnel back was now barred in a similar manner.

"This can't be good." Sweet muttered as he began looking around, grip tightening on his borrowed axe. Suddenly, dark blue and black energy began to gather in clusters around the room before bursting into the blue variants of monsters. The horde consisted of hayans, imps, the cat-like ones and the shark monsters.

"Where did they come from?!" Barkos exclaimed as he lashed out with his borrowed short sword at an imp that had lunged at him before rushing to assist Veris, who was dealing with two imps and a shark creature on her own.

"There must be something or someone summoning them nearby!" Ryo shouted in response as he let unleashed a flurry of slashes, cutting down several hayans and imps before leaping into the air with a whirling slash, destroying a pair of shark monsters before he hit the ground and lunging forward with a stab to take out one of the cat monsters.

"Seriously, could you _always _do this?!" Garren shouted to Ryo before realizing one of the shark monsters was gunning for him and blocking with his armored arm before countering with his new axe, destroying the beast with a single hit. From there, he moved on to take out a cat monster and imp in quick succession.

"_I used to be able to way more." _Ryo thought to himself before he gripped his sword with both hands and did a horizontal slash that sent an energy wave arcing across the battlefield, wounding or destroying any monsters in its path.

"_But it's coming back to me now. Why? What's changed that I can use magic again?" _Ryo's thoughts continued as he swiftly spun around with a vicious slash at a cat monster that had been trying to pounce on him.

"_It almost feels as if nothing happened. It feels so familiar…so simple… so natural…"_

As the fight continued, Veris, Garren and Barkos could see something slowly changing with Ryo, though perhaps 'change' wasn't the right word. His fighting and swordsmanship were being altered slightly, and yet it was so smooth, as if this is how he'd always fought. The transition was so smooth, for a second they thought that they remembered him fighting like this before, only for them to remember otherwise. Still, it was strange, and mesmerizing. It was almost like a dance now as he smoothly transitioned from pivots and jumps into new motions, all intercut with cuts, thrusts and parries. What was most noticeable about this change though, was that his iris' were glowing purple ever so slightly, and that the occasional spark of purple energy could be seen on his form, typically on his forearms and hands.

"What's happened to you…" Veris murmured before she saw a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and leapt back, throwing a Fire spell at the attacker, blasting it to dust. From there, she lashed out again with her short sword to take out a hayan that had drifted too close. As she spun around to reassess the situation, she realized that the enemy numbers, while reduced from the beginning, were much higher than they should have been.

"There's a summon stone somewhere in here! Find it!" Veris called out. Everyone began spinning around, searching for the stone in question. However, their search was greatly impeded by the endlessly replenishing horde of monsters. However, it was eventually located by Mole, who began shouting incoherently while pointing to the ceiling. Sweet was the first to figure out what Mole was up to and looked to where his fellow crew member was pointing.

"So, would this summon stone happen to be really dark gray and covered in glowing, dark blue cracks?" He called out before axing another hayan. Barkos and Garren both looked up to where Mole (And now Sweet) were gesturing and seeing the stalactite.

"That's it!" Barkos exclaimed.

"Question is how we get up there!" Garren added with frustration as he swung around and blocked an imp's claws with his armored arm again before going in for a one-handed axe strike, destroying the imp. Garren immediately went after a small group of hayans who hadn't noticed him and felled them mercilessly. Ryo looked to see the stone they were talking about and had an idea.

"Sweet! Boost me!" Ryo shouted as he started sprinting towards the doctor. Realizing what Ryo was getting at, Sweet bent down and cupped his hands together as Ryo approached. Ryo leapt forward, foot planted on Sweet's hands, who then heaved with all his might as Ryo jumped, launching him into the air! At the height of his arc, Ryo reared the sword back and swung it forward as hard as he could. The blade struck the stalactite and cleaved through it with surprising ease. As soon as the blade had passed through the stone it began to spark uncontrollably, black wisps emerging from the gash in the stone, until it finally exploded in a burst of dark blue energy! The monsters all began shuddering and convulsing until they too burst into dark blue energy before fading from existence.

"Fascinating… What is the composition…" Mole muttered as he scurried over to the broken shards of the stalactite, though it appeared to be ordinary stone now.

"No time for that. We gotta move." Ryo stated before turning to see the energy that had barred them from the tunnels had dissipated.

"Which way…?" Ryo muttered.

"Left." Mole answered, his voice very matter of fact. Everyone turned to look at him in confusion, sans Sweet.

"How do you know that?" Barkos asked.

"If you know anything about Mole, and even if you really don't, it's best not to question it." Sweet instantly replied before following Mole into the indicated tunnel. There were unsure glances between the rest of them before they followed the two explorers into the tunnel. This tunnel wasn't well lit like the cavern was, so Veris conjured up another fireball for light. As they kept going, Ryo noticed there was a definite upward slope. It seemed that Mole's prediction was right and that this tunnel was leading to the surface. Well, technically Atlantis was still underground, but it would still be an improvement over the insanity they'd just dealt with.

"Something's been bugging me about those monsters." Garren suddenly stated aloud.

"I think something about them has been bugging us all but go ahead." Barkos replied in a clipped tone, though he seemed to realize what he'd just said and looked pretty remorseful.

"Sorry, it's just… been a long day." Barkos apologized. Garren winced a bit.

"Yeah, I getcha. I guess what's been bothering me is the color change. I mean, what purpose does it serve? It doesn't really change what they can or can't do. Also, why haven't we seen more of those blue ones before now? It's been only the red ones so far." Garren thought aloud. Barkos frowned as he considered Garren's observations.

"I have noticed differences between the two varieties in terms of… I guess you could call it idle behaviour. The red variety have more aggressive movements when they aren't moving for an attack. Plus, the hayans are different. The red ones look to be depicting fury, while the blue ones are depicting sadness." Barkos noted before Ryo cut in.

"Wrath and Anguish." He suddenly said aloud. Barkos turned to him.

"You have something to share?" He asked pointedly, only to be slightly surprised when Ryo took him up on the offer.

"Remember when we found that massive stone tablet in Radiant Garden? It had the sigil for Wrath inscribed on the front of it and it was summoning the red variety of monster. While I was exploring the tunnels before we fell down here, there were several rough carvings of the Anguish rune along the tunnel walls. Plus, there were multiple mentions of it in a book I found at the end." Ryo explained.

"What book? Where is it?" Barkos asked aggressively.

"You saw me holding it when you found me before we got stuck down here, remember? I still have it." Ryo replied. Barkos looked a little sheepish when Ryo reminded him of that, though he still looked a bit incensed.

"I think we're getting closer to the end." Ryo suddenly announced.

"Yes, yes yes, air is much cleaner." Mole added. How Mole could tell was beyond them, except maybe Sweet, but they didn't question it. At this point, good news was all they wanted. When they reached the end, they found themselves in a chamber that was actually pretty promising. This chamber was more like the bottom of a very large pit that extended up so high, they couldn't see the top. The chasm also appeared to have an overhang of sorts on the opposite side from the tunnel they'd just come from, which was visually separated from the rest of the cavern by

"Kinda looks like the hole we fell down at the start, only smaller." Sweet noted.

"It is likely a side channel of the volcano." Mole replied a bit dismissively. As they looked around, they noticed another tunnel at the other end of the pit.

"Hey, Mole. Could that be our way out?" Veris asked the man in question. Mole rushed over to the tunnel entrance and frowned as he stroked his chin. After a few moments, he began examining the cave wells before returning to the center and waved his hands towards his face while sniffing at the air. In that time, Veris and Sweet had made their way over to the mole man's side.

"Well, is this our way out?" Sweet asked. Mole frowned in response.

"I am not sure. The air isn't any better, but it isn't any worse. I do smell water though" Mole responded.

"Well, that's better than nothing. Come on, guys! We're gonna try this one!" Veris called over her shoulder to Garren, Barkos and Ryo. The first two were quick to respond, jogging over to Veris, Mole and Sweet. However, Ryo lingered a few moments, seemingly distracted before he started jogging over. However, just as Garren and Barkos crossed the threshold into the overhang, familiar dark blue and black energy erupted from the ground like flames, cutting Ryo off from the others! Skidding to a stop before he hit the energy, Ryo's eyes were immediately wide with panic. The others, having realized what had happened immediately started freaking out as they tried to find a way to get Ryo through the barrier. However, a loud, animalistic and distorted bellow from high above them.

Ryo looked up and his eyes widened even more when he saw something plummeting down into the cavern. It hit the ground with a loud crash that shook the floor, causing everyone to stumble a fair bit before they regained their balanced. In the meantime, Ryo readied his blade as he eyed the thing that had fallen into the chasm. It was enormous, standing probably ten feet at the shoulder. It walked on all fours and looked like an incredibly skeletal feline. Its front claws were hooked like sickles, each one being at least two feet in length, dark blue and black energy crackling around them. Its head was triangular and draconic, with a long snout and sharp hooked teeth, almost like that of a shark's. Numerous spikes grew crookedly from its back, long and curved like its claws. However, one thing that was particularly menacing about the creature was its tail, which long and appeared to be divided into segments and held together by the same energy that burned in its jaws and around its claws. At the end of the tail were a pair of blades that looked similar to the tail of a fish, though in retrospect they would be more fitting on a whale for the orientation. And of course, it's entire body appeared to be covered in glowing, dark-blue cracks.

The creature snarled at Ryo before letting out a keening roar. Meanwhile, Ryo held his blade at the ready, dark energy once again crackling along its length.

"What do we do, what do we do?!" Garren exclaimed in terror as they watched Ryo facing down the nightmarish beast on his own.

"Ryo, you gotta get out of there!" Veris called desperately to the boy, but he didn't acknowledge it. Likely because there really wasn't any way out, sans the possibility of beating that monster. But even with what could only be the at least partial return of his magic, he was alone against a monster that looked to be much more dangerous than the Golem in Radiant Garden, and they'd only beaten that thing because they were able to shut down the portal. They hadn't outright defeated it.

And now, there Ryo was; On his own against a monster that looked ready-made for turning people into lunchmeat with no sign of a portal or other means of quickly shutting the fight down.

There was nothing else that could be done. It was Ryo against that beast with no one coming to help him. The group's breath was caught as Ryo reared back his blade and leaped forward as his blade flashed. It had begun.

* * *

_Cue Vim and Vigor…_

Ryo brought down his sword as hard as he could on the monster's head, but it merely flicked its head upward, knocking Ryo backwards. Ryo backflipped and landed on his feet before letting out a surprised yelp and diving to the side, narrowly avoiding the monster's tail as it shot forward like a scorpion's stinger, creating a large gash in the ground where Ryo had just been standing. Seeing an opening, Ryo rushed forward and stabbed his blade into the monster's right side before running towards it's back leg, dragging the blade through the creature as he went. Tugging the sword free, Ryo leapt into the air and swung it down as hard as he could on its back leg! Unfortunately, the creature jumped sideways to avoid this strike and lashed out with its massive front claws. Ryo managed to avoid the sickle-like claws, but he was still knocked back. Apparently, the energy around the claws lingered in the air and could hit him like a bludgeon, though Ryo was more inclined to compare it to a brick wall.

Ryo groaned as he slowly rose to his feet, rubbing his forehead as he did so. However, he didn't have time to rest as the monster let out a roar before its eyes fixed on Ryo and its jaws parted to unleash a gout of dark blue and black energy! Ryo dove to the side and popped back up to his feet, spinning as he did so. As his spinning brought him to face the monster, he dragged his sword through the ground before swiping it upwards and launching a crescent of purple energy towards the monster. The crescent struck the beast's shoulder, causing it to roar in surprise. Ryo immediately rushed forward and performed another leaping strike, this time aiming for the creature's neck. Unfortunately, the creature swung its tail around and swatted Ryo away before it began to stalk towards him, claws scraping across the ground as it approached. Ryo was already on his feet and had his sword ready. However, the signs of fear and exhaustion evident on his face and posture were not encouraging at all. Finally, the creature was close enough and swiped a few times at him, with Ryo dodging each one. However, these swipes were so lazy that Ryo knew it was just toying with him, wearing him down so that it could finish him off easily.

Gritting his teeth, Ryo rushed forward and ducked under another swipe and swung his blade upward, delivering a vertical slash to the monster's nose before whirling around for a horizontal swipe! The creature reared back in pain and surprise, allowing Ryo to get out of the corner he'd been backed into and deliver a few more slashes to the creature's left shoulder.

However, he'd forgotten about the creature's tail, which was now whirling towards him like a whip. He avoided being struck by the blades, but he was still sent hurtling across the cavern and into the wall, leaving him incredibly disoriented and sore. As he slowly stumbled to his feet and staggered forward a few steps while his vision refocused, he could see the monster, a blurry shape to him at the moment, slowly turning to face him. He could see it starting to glow more intensely, with the energy most concentrated in its mouth. As everything came back into focus, Ryo realized that the monster was charging up an energy attack in its mouth. Unfortunately, his realization came a little too late as the creature threw its head forward and launched a massive ball of dark blue energy towards Ryo! Knowing he couldn't dodge the attack, Ryo swung his blade upward to block, hand pressed against the flat of the blade. However, the blast was slowly overcoming him. He was slowly losing ground against it and his arms were starting to go numb. If he couldn't do something, it'd be over, and he'd be dead.

Veris, Garren and Barkos' eyes were wide with terror. They could just barely see Ryo's strange purple energy peaking out from behind the massive energy blast he was holding back, but they could tell it wasn't enough. Ryo's powers were failing, and he was about to die.

"We have to get through this and help him!" Veris exclaimed as she began unleashing all the fire magic she could on the barrier, but she couldn't break through.

"Come on! Help me! He's going to die!" She shouted at them, only for Garren and Barkos to pull her back from the barrier.

"There's nothing we can do to get through this! You need to save your magic!" Garren tried to reason, though his voice sounded like it was about to break. Veris tore herself free from their grip and rushed forward, swinging her short sword at the barrier with a wild shout! Much to her surprise, the barrier actually reacted to the blade. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say the blade reacted to the barrier. It began to draw the energy into the blade, coloring in a similar process that Ryo's sword had been colored black and purple, only using the color pallet of the barrier. However, as soon as the full blade was colored, Veris collapsed to her knees and tears began to stream from her eyes. Dark blue and black energy began to slowly emanate from her body as she began to shake and shiver. Recognizing the problem, Garren and Barkos immediately pulled her away from the barrier again. Upon separating the sword from the barrier, the color began to bleed away, and the weapon returned to its original silver color. Veris also returned to normal, though she looked rather sickly afterwards. She was still shivering a bit and her face had gone pale.

"Veris… Veris, hey! Are you okay?!" Barkos asked as he lightly shook her. When she didn't react, Sweet stepped in and began checking her over, frowning.

"She's definitely in shock, but I'm not sure about what else could be wrong. They didn't exactly include magic in my medical training." Sweet reported grimly.

"We need to get her up to the surface." Barkos started to say but was interrupted when Garren grabbed his shoulder and directed his attention to where Ryo was struggling against the energy blast and Barkos' eyes widened, and jaws parted slowly. Dark energy was growing more and more behind the blast. The blast began to shudder and spark before it exploded in a dark blue and black burst. On the other side of it Ryo was still standing tall, but something was different. His body was wreathed in purple and black energy and his iris' were glowing incredibly brightly.

Barkos and Garren were gobsmacked when they saw this change but were even more so when Ryo shot forward in a purple flash and began to unleash a storm of slashes at blinding speed, dashing about around the monster faster than it could turn to respond.

"What are you…?" Barkos murmured under his breath as Ryo continued his assault on the monster, unsure he wanted to know the answer to the question.

Ryo's eyes narrowed as he performed a back spring away from a tail slash and rocketed forward and unleashed another blitz of slashes before rushing around and delivered three rapid slashes to its left leg and leaping into the air and aligning his blade as he fell, driving the tip of the weapon through the monster's left eye! Just as the monster roared in surprise, Ryo had pried the weapon loose and was running along the monster's back before leaping into the air and charging dark energy into the blade almost instinctively before lunging downward, lancing straight through the monster's tail and sheering it right off! The creature let out a shriek and kicked its legs in a desperate attempt to hit the source of its pain, but Ryo was already on the opposite side of the room, glaring at the monster. The monster turned to see Ryo and roared angrily at him before it dug its claws into the ground and began its charge, dark blue and black energy surrounding it as it charged. Ryo simple raised his sword above his head and gripped it in two hands before lowering it in front of him before drawing it back, point aimed right at the monster. His dark aura began to surge and build around him, growing more intense and violent before he rocketed forward at blinding speed! There was a flash and Ryo was now on the other side of the room, with the monster tumbling across the floor of the cavern before striking the wall. After a few more moments, it began to crumble away while dark blue and black energy erupted from its body. The barrier that had separated Ryo from the others vanished along with the creature and Ryo turned to walk towards the rest of the group, his dark aura having completely vanished. However, as he got closer and closer to them, he felt a wave of exhaustion rush through his body before he collapsed to one knee, then all the way to the ground, completely unconscious. The last thing he heard was the startled cries from Barkos and Garren when his head hit the ground before it all faded to darkness…

* * *

_An unknown amount of time later…_

The first thing that occurred to Ryo when he woke up was that he felt really, _really _sore. And exhausted. He wasn't sure how that last one happened, since he felt like he'd been asleep for a long time, but here he was.

He slowly began to push himself up to a sitting position, groaning a bit at the stiffness in his joints, no doubt from how sleepy he was.

"Hello?" He croaked. His throat was parched, making his voice incredibly scratchy.

"You're awake?!" He heard a voice exclaim. He slowly turned to see Milo Thatch hurrying over to him, followed by Kida, Sweet, Garren and Veris.

"How long was I out?" Ryo asked as he looked around for any water to drink, nodding gratefully to Sweet who handed him a canteen, which Ryo proceeded to chug.

"Five days. It took a while to get you out of that cave. We had to swim through an underground channel to get out, though your friends stuck behind to keep an eye on you." Sweet explained. Ryo had a feeling there was more to it than that, but he was too busy draining yet another canteen to ask about it. Luckily, Milo continued the story without prompt.

"When Sweet and Mole got back, Rourke and the other central members of the crew had revealed that they'd come to Atlantis to steal a treasure called the Heart of Atlantis, Sweet and Mole being among the inner circle. However, the fact that Atlantis was still alive put a bunch of them on the back foot. The King of Atlantis tried to stop him, and Rourke attacked him, then found the crystal was beneath the throne room. After we found the Heart, it merged with Kida and Rourke locked her up to leave." Milo started explaining. Ryo figured that since Kida was still here, things had gone well. However, he still waited for Milo to finish.

"The crew was hesitant about stealing it after we learned that the crystal is the reason that the Atlanteans are still alive and Rourke attacking the king, they had a change of heart. We… couldn't save the king. Rourke gave him internal bleeding and there's nothing we could have done about it. After that, we managed to catch up with Rourke and stop him before saving Atlantis from an eruption caused by the fighting." Milo explained. Ryo blinked a few times before rubbing his forehead.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in. How the hell did I sleep through all that?" Ryo muttered. Garren shuddered.

"It was terrifying when the caves began shaking. I thought the volcano was going to erupt and we were going to die to magma." Garren muttered.

"Anyway, after all that craziness, we managed to find some scuba gear come grab you guys, then Sweet and the Atlanteans did their best to treat you, but it seemed you just overtaxed yourself with that weird light show of yours." Sweet explained. Ryo groaned.

"Of course, I did. That's all I seem to be able to do with it." Ryo complained. Veris frowned at this but knew that present company wasn't appropriate for the much-needed conversation.

"Hey, you all mind giving the three of us a few minutes. Oh, and send Barkos in too, please?" Veris asked. Sweet and Mole both had a feeling they knew what she was asking and nodded.

"You got it." Sweet replied before ushering everyone else out. A couple minutes later, Barkos walked into the tent. His lips were pulled tight and his gaze was hard. Ryo closed his eyes and took an audible breath in through his nose as he heard Barkos come to a stop.

There was silence for a few moments before Veris finally spoke.

"We've tried to be patient and let you sort all this out on your own but given how disastrously things have gone since we made that decision, I think its safe to say that was a mistake. You've been keeping more secrets and you've outright lied to us." Veris stated. Ryo didn't respond, nor did he turn to face any of them. He didn't need to. There wasn't any arguing with that.

"After everything we've been through since Radiant Garden, the least we deserve to know is why." Veris continued, though seemed a bit displeased when Ryo didn't say anything.

"Why are you still keeping secrets? Why are you lying to us?" Veris pressed, only to pause when Garren subtly nudged her shoulder and gestured to Ryo's hand, which was clenched into a shaking fist.

"I'm scared…" Ryo said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Wait, that's it? You're scared? Scared of what?!" Barkos demanded hotly, his face one of anger and frustration.

"I don't know, that's the problem!" Ryo responded. Now it was Garren's turn to cut in.

"What does that even mean? You're not making sense!" He exclaimed.

"You wouldn't understand." Ryo countered angrily.

"Then help us understand! Dammit Ryo, your gallivanting off without telling us nearly got all of us killed! These secrets and lies aren't helping anyone! In fact, they're actively hurting us, most of all you!" Veris shouted at him. Ryo didn't respond. Veris wanted to continue her tirade against him, but the fire for it just wasn't there.

"What are you so afraid of?" She asked finally. Ryo took a shaky breath in and let it out before his eyes opened. Now that they were open, they could see everything he'd been talking about; his fear, his uncertainty, his guilt, all of it.

"My power loss two years ago, these monsters showing up, the Dread King and his hunt for magic, it's all connected somehow and the more answers I stumble upon the worse it all gets. My home, the training I went through when I was younger… And that all ignores everything else that has yet to come to light. I'm talking about stuff I don't know about either, by the way. I'm… I'm sorry about lying and running off like that. It's just… I feel like everything I knew, everything that made me who I am is crumbling down around me and I'm stuck watching it all happen at a snail's pace." Ryo murmured. The group were a little bit taken aback by the last thing Ryo said. After hearing no reaction from them, he closed his eyes and took another shaky breath before laying back down.

Getting a feeling that they wouldn't get anything else out of him, Veris, Garren and Barkos all left the room to talk amongst each other.

_Outside the temporary infirmary…_

"What are we supposed to do with all that?" Veris asked.

"I don't know… I want to believe he was lying at the end, but…" Barkos muttered glumly. Garren was really quiet, instead just staring at the ground until he suddenly spoke.

"Do you guys think we pushed to hard?" Garren asked. There was silence for an uncomfortably long time until Veris finally shared her thoughts.

"I… I don't think so. Considering everything we went through down there, this needed to happen. I just don't know how to help him if he won't let us." Veris murmured.

"Doesn't make me feel like any less of a jackass…" Garren muttered. It was a sentiment shared among the group. Still, Veris had a point.

They'd almost died several times because Ryo went off on his own without informing them that he was going off to search for whatever answers he was looking for, and Ryo all but certainly have died if he'd gone on his own, unprepared as he was. Still, the unspoken worry was that if they couldn't do something to mend the rift that was being formed, the damage could soon be set in stone.

And that wasn't an outcome that anyone wanted but was only looking more and more inevitable by the day.

* * *

**OH GOD, FINALLY!**

**Creativity: Say, what's that all abou… OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT NUMBER?!**

**Author: TERRIFYING! THAT'S WHAT IT IS! TERRIFYING!**

**So, last Sunday I broke my all time record for longest chapter, and I did it in a little over eight hours. The chapter in question was chapter 20 of Limit Breaker, which was… 7542 words.**

**While not done in the same timeframe, this chapter in terms of story section alone is 8121 words long. That ignores the opening and closing ANs. Because I was THAT committed to getting the Atlantis arc done this chapter! **

**After all of that, I gotta say, I am really… **_**really… REALLY **_**tired! I'm also really glad that next chapter is going to be a Sora chapter, since they're usually nice and simple. **

**Creativity: I'm just glad that I'm on medical leave.**

**Author: That eight hour blitz was not good for any of us. **

**So, I really don't have much else to say here, other than DO NOT EXPECT SOMETHING LONG FOR A WHILE! THE SUFFERING IS TOO MUCH!**

***ahem***

**Sorry about that. We'll do a short bit of clarification on some stuff before we leave, but it won't be very long. First off, the final attack that Ryo used against the boss monster was a variation of Terra's Dark Haze attack from BBS. **

**We'll be signing off for now. We hope you enjoyed, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you on Saturday!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Post Completion Edit: I am so sorry that I forgot to upload yesterday! It's been one heluva a week and it completely slipped my mind. I'll try to keep it from happening again.**

* * *

**Good evening all! I'm a little bit frustrated right now, because my usual laptop is misbehaving and had to go in for servicing. Again. For the second time in a month…**

**Creativity: Boss, you okay? You're seething with rage a little more than usual.**

**Author: I'm fine. Just a liiiiitle bit pissed with a certain laptop manufacturer…**

**Creativity: Are you sure that's it? Because I'm pretty sure you're digging gashes into the leather on the Master Chair…**

**Author: Let me seethe in peace. **

**So yeah, I'm in a bit of a mood right now. Should be an easy fix (I hope) And I got all the important stuff backed up, but still. **

**Angry. Very, very angry.**

**Creativity: Okay… I'll just handle the review responses while he… deals with… all that…**

**CeleneTheAngel: Oh no. There will be no more puns here. Oh, and glad you enjoyed the final battle last time. It'll be a while before we do something that over the top, but it'll be worth it.**

**And that's the responses! How are you feeling, boss?**

**Author: Grrrmphssssssssssrrrrrrgrrrrghgr…**

**Creativity: Yeah, sounds about right. Now then, before we begin, here's the Discord password:**

**Alrighty then! Now, allow us to proudly present chapter 18 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"Oh man, am I glad to be out of that maze!"

"You've said that five times already."

"Hey, I felt like I was never gonna get out of there! Let me celebrate!"

"could you perhaps celebrate with a modicum of silence? Don't forget, there is still much work to be done."

Sora rolled his eyes. It was true that he'd been voicing his relief at no longer being trapped in the labyrinth quite a bit but considering how _boring _it had been except for a few spots, he felt it was at least partially earned. Besides, it wasn't like he had much else to talk about. Archive's stoicism made it hard for Sora to start conversations with dark denizen. At least using conventional conversation starters. Archive had already been rather cagey when it came to his past, and Sora didn't want to push his luck on that count. Archive said he was here to keep Sora alive to complete his task, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. So far, he hadn't given any signs that he found the task unpleasant, but that didn't mean that could change. Sora would rather it change for better than for worse.

So, he used the awkward silence he hated to try and think of a question he hadn't asked Archive yet that he would be inclined to answer. Maybe ask more about those proto-Heartless? Seemed harmless enough, though he wasn't sure how much Archive would care to divulge, assuming he knew more than what he'd already told Sora.

Maybe Archive would be willing to share how he came to this world. While that was a more personal question, he figured that it wasn't likely to prompt anything worse than a polite refusal. He hoped. On second thought, he might be pushing his luck on that one.

What about how this world came about? Yeah, that could be it. Impersonal, reasonable, likelihood of actually getting a straight answer, it was probably the best question he could ask.

"So, this world… You said it existed before the Keyblade War broke the worlds, right?" Sora asked. Archive made a 'hm' noise before answering.

"An oversimplification of the events that transpired, but it will suffice for what explanation I can provide. Before the first keyblades were forged in the image of the Ultimate Key, there was a cataclysm within the Dark Realm that reached into its very roots. The nature of this cataclysm went unnoticed by history, as human magic had not progressed so far as to harness Light and Darkness in their recognizable forms, thus there was no true awareness of the realms of Light and Darkness. Almost immediately after this cataclysm took place, Dark energy began to pool together and took the form of an isolated island, invisible to the eye and nigh impossible to reach. What precious few that found themselves here have never left to this day. Well, sans the exception I told you about in the labyrinth." Archive informed Sora, who noticed something in the latter half of Archive's explanation.

"Wait, you said that everyone who's ever wound up here has never left. Does that mean that more than just you three ended up here?" Sora asked. Archive shifted a bit, indicating possible discomfort from that question.

"Every now and again a stranger would find their way here, but they wouldn't last very long. This place is a refuge, similar to the world you know as Traverse Town. However, those who find their way here often do so when they face their end, instead finding a place to spend their final moments in peace. Only three individuals have come here without passing on to the Final World not long after their arrival, two of which met natural ends in comfort. The last was brought here by the Wolf and slumbers in secret here. They arrived shortly after the ruin brought about by the Keyblade War consumed the world and broke it into the many you know today." Archive revealed. Now that had Sora's attention.

"They're still here? Should I bring them back home with me after I finish unlocking all those obelisks?" Sora asked. Archive shook his head.

"They'll awaken in their own time. The damage done to them was not of the body, but to their heart and soul. Damage to either is difficult to mend as it is, but damage to both can take centuries to heal, and even then, those two important pieces of who we are cannot truly return to how they used to be." Archive explained before looking up at the purple sky.

"Though in the end, I suppose the heart and soul are always changing. New experiences, new people, the natural evolution and reframing of old experiences, all of it shapes and reshapes who we are, and who we become. It can be hard to remember that in a place like this, where everything has stood still for so long while the worlds beyond constantly shift like desert sands." Archive mused. Sora felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Were you some sort of poet or philosopher before you wound up here?" Sora lightly jabbed. What happened next was something that caught Sora completely by surprise. Archive rolled his eyes.

"I was nothing of the sort. I would imagine I'd be much better at it if I was, though perhaps more intolerable as a bodyguard." Archive replied. Sora's jaw dropped.

"Did… did you just have a sense of humor?" Sora asked, dumbfoundedly. Archive looked a bit confused for a moment before looking a bit wistful.

"I suppose it's been some time since I was able to speak to another. After so long, you forget what it's like." Archive mused. Sora cocked his head in confusion.

"Wait, what about those two others I fought during the trials? Don't you ever talk to them?" Sora asked.

"Oh, certainly. However, it isn't the same as conversation between humans. Their language is in no way comparable to spoken dialect. The concept of their communication is one that cannot be 'known' or 'explained', only understood. Still, I find that explanation lacking." Archive explained.

"Huh. That actually reminds me of someone I met a long while back. There was a guy called Ansem the Wise that King Mickey knew pretty well. The King told me one of the last things that Ansem said was "'I try to wrap my mind around things my heart already knows, only to fail'." Sora thought aloud. Archive made another 'hm' noise as they kept walking.

They'd been walking for a while, come to think of it. Sora had used the tracking power he'd gained from the final trial, so they at least knew where they were going. Didn't mean getting there wasn't taking a while. Well, at least he'd gotten some more conversation out of it. And he'd learned more about the world as a nice bonus. It was a little disconcerting how many people had come here on death's door, according to Archive, but at least Sora didn't have to worry as much about that. Archive had joined him for the express purpose of keeping him alive throughout this whole ordeal. And once he was done with unlocking all of these obelisks, he could go home!

Wait…

"Hold up a moment. You said that no one has ever left here once they've arrived, except for that wolf, right? Then how am I getting home?!" Sora realized loudly. Archive looked a bit surprised and irritated by the outburst but took it in stride and assured Sora that he wasn't trapped here forever.

"Releasing the shackles will allow you safe passage from this place back to the worlds. You already have a destination in mind, correct?" Archive asked. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I was just taking care of some stuff and then heading back to Yen Sid's tower when I got yanked here. Oh man, I hope they aren't worried about how long I've been gone. Wait, how long have I been gone?" Sora asked. Archive shrugged.

"Within this world, a couple days or so. However, the time you are gone from the worlds will be hardly any different from the time your journey from Yen Sid's tower to the sleeping worlds and back. This task should take you approximately a week, given your current pace and the number of obelisks still remaining." Archive explained. His fears assuaged, Sora let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, that's great to hear. I've still got a lot of stuff to do, what with Xehanort still out there and his new Organization XIII. Plus, I'm not exactly in top form after my Mark of Mastery exam went so off the rails." Sora replied, wincing a bit as he recalled his falling into Xehanort's trap. Archive made a sound of distaste at the mention of Xehanort.

"For all that man's intelligence and cunning, he is a blind fool. It's been a great displeasure of all who reside here to have him sully the worlds. Unfortunately, the only one here that could do so is the wolf, and he has chosen to keep out of the worlds' affairs, much as he dislikes it." Archive grumbled.

"Wait, why do you guys have against Xehanort? Not that I'm arguing against it, I'm just curious." Sora asked, though he was wondering if perhaps that was a mistake, since even if his face was concealed by bandages, Sora knew Archive's face was one that indicated a long and angry rant was coming.

"Xehanort's beliefs about Light and Darkness are informed through his curiosity and his vast knowledge of stories and mythology, with the center of it being the story of the first Keyblade War. He is obsessed with how Light and Darkness have shaped history, believing that Darkness has done so through all that has fallen to Darkness. He first sought to master Darkness in the belief that it would allow him to 'correct the course of history' but failed to recognize that despite his rank of Keyblade Master and his new Dark powers, he was still one man. Failing that, he turned to history and concluded that the way forward was to recreate the Keyblade War, a crisis you now face. Xehanort's fundamental misunderstanding of the heart and the path of the worlds has led down a path that a Xehanort long past would look upon with horror and distain." Archive growled. Sora had a feeling that Archive would have gone on a bit longer if Sora hadn't noticed that they'd reached the end of the road. Quite literally, in fact.

It appeared that the technically closest obelisk was on another island, which Sora did not have the confidence to try jumping to, nor did he see any way of crossing over to it. No bridges, natural or otherwise, no islands he could jump across, not even a higher elevator he could try to use to leap the gap.

"Quick question: what happens if I were to fall off one of these islands?" Sora asked Archive.

"Well, assuming you couldn't land on any other island below, you'd likely spend the rest of eternity plummeting towards nothing. Don't worry, though. Odds are that the wolf would catch you before you fell beyond recovery. Try not to do that, though. Nothing is guaranteed." Archive answered. That didn't do much to reassure Sora, but it was better than nothing.

"So, how are we supposed to get over there?" Sora asked, looking around once more.

"the path forward may be closer than you think." Archive replied before gesturing towards a nearby pathway tucked between two rock walls.

"I thought you weren't allowed to help me aside from those yellow things." Sora commented as he started walking towards the indicated path.

"That doesn't mean I can't occasionally point you in the right direction." Archive countered as he followed after Sora. The pathway ran for about twenty minutes of casual walking before they finally reached their destination, which was a familiar looking crater in the ground, with a statue situated in the center.

"This looks like that thing I unlocked that created those teleporter lines." Sora muttered as he summoned Kingdom Key.

"I'm not gonna have to fight that wolf or something else to unlock this thing, am I?" Sora asked Archive, who shook his head.

"Not this time. You were tested at the first shade-line nexus to ensure you were prepared to enter the labyrinth, where you would face further trials. Besides, with the possibility of another attack at any moment, it wouldn't do to test you at every turn. We could be caught off-guard or when you are exhausted which would exponentially increase the odds of your demise." Archive replied. Sora shuddered a bit at the mention of his possible death in this place but pushed those thoughts and tapped the statue with his keyblade. The carvings on said statue began to glow purple before several other spots nearby began to glow purple as well. Purple arcs shot out of the spots and off towards the previously out of reach islands. Sora grinned as he saw one of the beams connect to the one with the obelisk they'd been tracking down.

"Let's go!" Sora exclaimed before jumping into the arc. Once again, he was hurtling through the air before being deposited on solid ground. After looking around to get his bearings, he noticed that Archive hadn't joined him yet. In fact, after a bit of searching, he noticed Archive hadn't moved from the previous island or even stepped closer to the 'shade-line', as Archive had referred to it. Wondering what was up, Sora as about to call out to him when Archive suddenly vanished in a flash of purple and black energy before reappearing next to Sora!

"Wait, since when could you do that?!" Sora exclaimed. Archive shrugged.

"Since the beginning of my existence." Archive replied. Sora frowned.

"Wait… Could you have teleported us across that chasm? Why bother with those shade-lines you mentioned?!" Sora demanded. Archive was unfettered by Sora's reaction and gestured in the direction of the obelisk, indicated by the glowing column of purple light that climbed into the sky.

"This is your task to complete, not mine. Nor is the responsibility shared. Now, let us make haste. There is still much to be done." Archive replied as if nothing was wrong. Which there really wasn't, when Sora stopped to think about it. That didn't stop it from being frustrating, though.

With an exasperated huff, Sora began his march towards the obelisk. Archive was right about one thing: There was still a lot of work to do.

* * *

**And that's where we'll leave it for today! How are you doing now, boss? Feel up to handling the closing notes?**

**Author: Yeah, I think I've got enough of the angry out of my system for now.**

**So, we're keeping this chapter short for a number of reasons, chief among them being that the last chapter was 8.6K WORDS LONG! So Ima be taking it easy for the next few chapters. Especially since the chapter I wrote before that (for Limit Breaker) was my previous longest chapter that I completed in a little over eight hours. **

**Creativity: I still can't walk!**

**Author: At least you stopped screaming about amputating your legs.**

**So, aside from the super long chapters, I'm trying to get back to a more manageable word count so I can still enjoy writing without getting impatient for the end.**

**Also, speaking of the end, we're currently looking at about two more chapters before season one of Before: KH is finished! I'd say one more Sora chapter, then the finale and possible teaser, then we go on hiatus while I rest and begin plotting out season 2.**

**Creativity: that about cover it all?**

**Author: I think so! So, we're gonna sign off for now. Thank you all for reading, please review, hope to see you in Discord and we'll see you on Tuesday!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Greetings all, and welcome to chapter 19 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! So, as of this writing, I've resumed updating for Before: KH and have published chapter 9, so at least you won't have been starved of updates for this series by the time this comes out. I've got five weeks of this stuff squirreled away currently, so you should be fine on that front.**

**Creativity: So, five weeks… what will be the date at that point?**

**Author: We'll be in the second week of November. **

**Creativity: Anything important going on then?**

**Author: Well, there's Remembrance Day, but that's a Canada thing.**

**Before we go further with discussion, here's the review responses:**

**CeleneTheAngel: Currently, the world Sora's on doesn't have a name. And while it may bear some small resemblance to the Final World, it is not associated with it. As for why the World is the way it is, we'll go into more detail on it at a later date. **

**And that's the responses done!**

**So, since we're getting near the end of the season, I think I can say with certainty that getting seasons 2 and three done is gonna take a while. Not as long as AVBI did, nor as many chapters, but it'll be a while. I've already got a rough outline of the whole story and the seasons are mainly there to break the story into acts of sorts. **

**Creativity: Maybe we should just refer to them as acts.**

**Author: I'll take that under consideration.**

**However, you all won't be completely starved of content since I'll be working on a short (hopefully) Star Wars story, as well as a mini-series for Before: KH that will run in between seasons! Details for both will be released later, but for now just know they exist.**

**And, that's about it from me! Now then… **_**ahem…**_** We now proudly present chapter 19 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"Well, this is certainly different from the other places."

Sora and Archive had been exploring new island for some time now, trying to navigate their way to the nearest obelisk. This particular island was a far cry from the other ones Sora had seen so far, with the closest comparison he could think of being the labyrinth from some time ago. Instead of rough-hewn rock, the island was covered in structures that were obviously meant to be shelter of some kind. They were actually rather well designed, being very squared off and in-line with each other. There were multiple levels of these shelters all organized together, some half-stacked on each other. Peering inside, Sora couldn't see any furnishings, but there was a raised platform that one presumably slept or sat on.

"What are these doing here? Did the people who survived here make these?" Sora asked Archive as the continued down the empty town's main street.

"These shelters have been here for as long as this world has existed. My understanding is that they are a hybridization of the domiciles that the Shades had in the old Dark Realm, and those of a world long since lost. The Shades occasionally visit this place, 'out of acknowledgement of those lost', they say. They don't stay here though. It reminds them too much of a home long since lost." Archive answered. Sora wasn't sure if it was just the strange reverb in Archive's voice, but it sounded like he felt that way too, though to a lesser degree. Sora considered pointing that out but decided that might be best left alone for now. Archive probably didn't want to be asked about something like this until they were clear of the source.

However, it turned out that even if Sora had asked, there wouldn't have been an opportunity for Archive to indulge or refuse him. The familiar sound of rolling thunder filled the air, growing louder as the familiar dark yellow lightning began to gather before it began to rapidly strike the ground. From the smoke emerged the beasts that always followed. Hayans, imps, cat monsters that Sora believed were called manticores, and the strange quadruped monsters he'd first encountered. Looking at it closer, it looked slightly similar to a stegosaurus, but not quite. It looked more like an ankylosaur skeleton with four bone spines emerging from its spine. The gaps and cracks in its skull that leaked out that strange yellow energy only made the creature look more like a fossil risen from the grave. Archive frowned and dragged his foot back before raising his right arm, dark energy surrounding both his forearm and his hand.

"Ready yourself. This is only the first wave." He told Sora before slamming his hand onto the ground. Sora watched as Dark energy erupted from the ground in pillars, heading towards the monsters, destroying several of the hayans before Sora even summoned his Keyblade! Once he got over the shock though, Sora flourished his weapon and rushed forward, moving to engage a group of imps. Much like the ones he'd faced before, they weren't that difficult to dispatch. It was originally the fact that he currently had no crowd control options that he'd been on the run. However, he no longer had to worry about getting swarmed since Archive had his back now.

Speaking of, Archive was getting work done. He had twin spheres of Dark energy in his hands and was firing a stream of dark bolts from his hands that were more than holding back the horde of monsters. He ceased fire for a moment before slamming his hands together and unleashing purple chain lightning that surged forward and cut down a whole swath of imps and hayans before launching himself into the air, his body wreathed in Dark energy before slamming into the ground, causing energy spikes to erupt from the ground that impaled several more of the monsters, taking out several of the manticores and imps.

"That looks familiar!" Sora quipped as he rolled out of the way of a manticore's tail before lunging forward and stabbing it in the head. He then whirled around and launched a salvo of fire spells at a cluster of hayans.

"Focus on the fight at hand." Archive replied humorlessly before launching two large dark orbs towards the dinosaur-like creatures. The blasts burst into twin fields that encompassed the creatures before firing out continuous streams of Dark energy within their radius, almost like a plasma ball. Seeing an opening, Sora lunged forward with Kingdom Key raised as the fields dissipated, leaping forward while delivering a series of whirling slashes! Landing on the other side of the monsters, Sora stopped in a dramatic pose with his keyblade held in front of him in conclusion of his final slash. The monsters suddenly all keeled over and vanished in bursts of dark yellow and black energy.

"Be on guard! The next wave is coming!" Archive called out as he made a series of motions with his hand, conjuring up a few dozen small Dark spheres that formed three orbits around him.

Unlike before, the next wave didn't appear as lightning bolts from the sky. Instead, they were charging them from down the main street of the town. Sora spun Kingdom Key a few times before swinging the point forward, aiming it at the incoming horde and unleashing a stream of fire spells at them! Archive appeared to have the same idea, as he swung his right arm forward, sending the orbiting spheres at great speed towards the incoming horde, one after the other. It appeared these had a bit more oomph behind them that the dark bolts from earlier, as the monsters were destroyed much more swiftly than when the bolts were used.

Recognizing that range attacked weren't optimal anymore, Sora stopped casting fire and instead rushed forward, blitzing the incoming monsters with a flurry of blows. Archive joined in not long after, launching waves of Dark energy from his arms as he swiped them through the air.

"Man, if I hadn't lost most of my power, I'd be doing as well as you!" Sora complained as he destroyed another hayan.

"Keep your focus here and now, where it belongs!" Archive admonished as he suddenly vanished in a brief flash of Dark energy, only to reappear behind Sora and unleash twin streams of Dark energy that destroyed a pair of manticores that had been attempting to pounce on Sora from behind.

"Do you know if there's more waves after this one?" Sora called out to Archive as he spun around and delivered a hard swing that took out one of the dinosaur monsters before stabbing an imp in the chest before performing a leaping slash that took out a hayan.

"There would be another, but it's currently occupied at the moment." Archive replied before unleashing another chain-lightning attack on a group of hayans before blasting at an imp without even looking at it. From there, he fired a storm of dark bolts straight into the air, which began to rain down from on high. The hail of bolts proved nigh impossible to dodge and the current wave of monsters had soon been heavily thinned out. As much as Sora wanted to gape in awe at the attack, but he was otherwise occupied with taking out a trio of manticores, which appeared to be a fair bit more intelligent than the other manticores. They were keeping their distance, only opting to quickly rush in and attack him with their tails before retreating. Opting to play along, Sora hopped backwards and launched a fireball at the middle one, causing it to stumble back in surprise, though it didn't seem to have suffered any visible damage. However, it did the job. Sora spun his keyblade above his head before launching two fireballs back to back and rushing forward. With the two manticores on the side were both stunned by the fireballs, Sora rushed forward and drove his keyblade through the head of the center manticore. Before it could even finish vanishing in a burst of dark yellow energy, Sora spun around swung Kingdom down on the left Manticore's neck before spinning around, whipping his keyblade horizontally as he did to destroy the third manticore.

As the monsters vanished, Sora turned to see that Archive had finished cleaning up the rest of the wave and was currently looking around to make sure that there weren't any more nasties waiting to pounce on them. After he was satisfied they had a brief moment of respite he strode over to Sora. However, he didn't disperse any of the dark energy surrounding his body.

"There are more on the path ahead. They are being held at bay by the Wolf and the Shades. We should make haste." Archive declared before he began to rush down the street. Sora quickly followed, keyblade slung over his shoulder.

"So those guys I fought during the trials are called Shades?" Sora asked as they ran.

"Not a good time, but the brief explanation is that 'Shade' is a rough translation for their species name in their own language." Archive replied.

"Huh. I guess that's as good an explanation as any." Sora mused aloud as they rounded a corner and saw the aforementioned Shades currently locked in combat with yet another hoard of monsters. The two of them were displaying incredible teamwork, with the one more focused on close combat keeping monsters away from the more range-focused one, which would occasionally conjure up barriers to protect the first one when a monster tried to pounce from behind.

"Let's clean 'em out!" Sora shouted as he rushed forward, casting a pair of fire spells as he rushed forward before leaping into the air to stab his keyblade through a hayan before going into a flip to deliver a downward slash to the head of a manticore. Archive in the meantime rushed forward and used that Dark pillar attack of his before he let out a growl before he began creating twin spheres of Dark energy around his hands. With a grunt, Archive slammed his hands together to create one large sphere before aiming his arms into the air above the battlefield. He then swung both arms to the sides, sending the sphere flying into the air. As it flew through the air it grew rapidly before it reached right above where Sora and the Shades were standing. The sphere then exploded into a stream of dark blasts, similar to lasers that shot downward in a cone, striking the ground everywhere except where Sora and the Shades were standing.

The attack was devastating to the monsters' numbers, but it seemed to have taken up quite a bit of Archive's stamina, as evidenced by the fact that he was now slumped over a fair bit and looked really tired. Sora and the Shades rushed over to him and kept the monsters away as he recovered. Thankfully it didn't appear to be long, and soon Archive straightened out and swung his right arm forward, launching a salvo of dark bolts at the monsters. Immediately, the first Shade rushed forward and used its Dark energy blades to finish off a pair of imps before the second one floated into the air and launched twin beams of Dark energy that destroyed one of the dinosaur monsters. With that, the third hoard was defeated.

"Man, we are cleaning house!" Sora commented as he slung his keyblade over his shoulders and grinned. It seemed however that his notions of victory were a bit premature, given the way that Archive hadn't relaxed yet and the two Shades seemed to be incredibly agitated.

"The fight isn't over. Something is coming…" Archive muttered ominously as Dark energy began to crackle around his fingertips. The Shades were even more antsy now, constantly looking around, adjusting their footing (or just spinning in the case of the floating one) and generally behaving a bit more like the twitchy Shadow Heartless that Sora was more used to running into.

Then came a pair of bellows that called to mind some of the larger, nastier beasties that Sora had dealt with in his adventures. Not long after, there were the sounds of two large creatures clashing before there was a yellow flash, an explosion and the next thing Sora knew there was a large purple and black wolf tumbling through the air after being apparently blasted from a higher elevation. They quickly got out of the way as the giant creature collided with the ground, causing their footing to shake and shudder from the impact.

"Umm, I'm not sure I want to know the answer to this question, but what exactly is strong enough to throw this guy off a cliff?" Sora asked before they heard a loud roar from above. Sora looked up and yelped before he and everyone else leapt to the side as something large hit the ground. That something large turned out to be a brand new monster that was obviously the leader of all the raiding parties they'd dealt with in the last while. It's head looked vaguely lionlike with large tusks that looked akin to that of an elephant coming from its lower jaws. Its front limbs were thinner and ended in sickle-like talons while its rear limbs were built more stickily, ending in more triangular claws, better for running. It's body was strange, with the front end appearing skeletal, with ribcage on full display and a core of dark yellow energy crackling and sparking within the bony structure, while everything below the ribs was more like rough-hewn rock. And then there was its tail. The tail was long and whip-like, though that wasn't the strangest part about it. The strangest part was that about two thirds of the way down it split into three, with each of the three ends having a small (relatively) spiked ball attached. The tail thrashed and whipped about before striking the ground, making a sound remarkably similar to an actual whip.

"Can I just say I hate you for dragging me into this?" Sora muttered as he sank into his battle stance.

"Focus." Archive replied. If Sora hadn't been facing down one of his top ten most intimidating monsters, he'd have snarked back about Archive's reply. However, the screeching bellow from their adversary left no time for idle battle chatter as it lunged forward. The Wolf rushed forward to meet it, Dark energy wrapping around its front claws as it loped towards the creature. The two beasts reared up on their hind legs as they collided, swiping wildly at each other as the Wolf unleashed a stream of Dark energy from its maw into the monster's face! However, the monster merely leaned forward and used its body weight to headbutt the Wolf, throwing it back down. It quickly leapt back to avoid the sickle blades that were about to drop on top of it, as well as the tusks that the creature was trying to drive through the Wolf's torso. Luckily, it appeared the monster had gotten its tusks stuck in the ground in its attempt to skewer the Wolf.

"Now's our chance!" Sora shouted as he and the first Shade rushed forward, their respective blades poised to strike. Archive and the second Shade on the other hand, decided to launch themselves into the air and began to pepper the beast with blasts. The Wolf in the meantime, was pacing back and forth, snarling as the purple marks on its body began to glow brighter and brighter. Sora and the first Shade began to wail on the monsters' head, but unfortunately they didn't seem to be doing much to it. Soon enough, the creature pulled its tusks out of the ground and roared before swinging its head from side to side, attempting to sweep Sora and the first Shade aside. The Shade managed to retreat safely, however, Sora wasn't quite so lucky and was clipped by the monster, throwing him to the side. As it did so, there was a dark yellow spark that passed between Sora and the creature's tusk.

The pain was horrendous, well beyond what he should have been feeling from such an impact. It felt as though each of his nerves were being struck with lightning while also having barbed, burning needles driven into them at the same time. Sora thrashed about on the ground before the fit subsided, but he was still incapacitated as his system recovered from the literal pain shock. The monster saw this as an opportunity and made to pounce on Sora. However, the Wolf seized the brief window of opportunity and lunged forward while wreathed in Dark energy! As the monsters was knocked away and began brawling with the Wolf again, Archive rushed over to Sora's side and charged Dark energy into his palm before slamming it onto Sora's chest. A purple pulse washed over Sora's body and instantly he felt good as new! Well, aside from the dull ache from the impact.

"What was that?" Sora groaned as he used Kingdom Key to climb to his feet.

"As I warned you, even just a touch from them leads to immense suffering." Archive reminded him grimly before turning to see the Wolf being pushed back by the monster.

"Well why isn't the Wolf feeling it? Can it not feel pain?" Sora asked as he began searching for an opening.

"The Wolf is using Dark energy to shield itself from the monster's touch. Invisible armor, if you will. While all of us are capable of the technique, none of us know any warding techniques so we cannot shield anyone other than ourselves." Archive explained as he leapt into the air and unleashed several highly explosive blasts on the creature's turned back. While this got a reaction from it, Sora couldn't see any evidence of damage.

"What is it going to take to kill this thing?!" Sora yelled as he leapt sideways, narrowly avoiding the monster's whip tail.

"It must have a weak point. We just need to find it." Archive replied evenly, though it was evident in his voice that he was just as fatigued and frustrated by the most recent string of raiding parties that had been capstoned with this piece of work.

"Wait, weak point? Oh wow, do I feel like an idiot! Its core! Go for its core!" Sora shouted. Indeed, it seemed obvious in retrospect that attacking the core would be the first place to test for weaknesses. Unfortunately, it was only exposed when the creature was reared up, and it was only reared up when the wolf was in the way. Wait a second…

"Can the Wolf understand me?" Sora called out to Archive before leaping into the air as the monster swept its tail across the ground. Archive seemed to catch on to what Sora was thinking and instead of answering, let out a strange, keening noise. The Wolf responded immediately, lunging forward and prompted the monster to rear up for a strike, though that only exposed its suspected weak point. The Wolf then leapt back as the second Shade, Archive and Sora began to bombard the weak point with everything they had, with Archive and the Shade using Dark blasts and Sora pouring on Fire spells.

Now they were getting somewhere. The creature started shrieking in pain and fell backwards, tumbling to the ground and leaving its underside exposed once more. The Wolf, seeing an opportunity, began growling as the purple marks on its body began to glow intensely. Dark energy began to pool in its jaws before it dug in its front legs and unleashed a concentrated beam of death upon the monster, striking its weak point with pinpoint accuracy. It only now dawned on Sora just how much the Wolf had taken it easy on him, and how much strength he'd lost because of Xehanort.

Of course, those thoughts vanished as the monster's core burst and the rest of it soon followed in a terrific explosion of black and yellow energy. As the last wisps of it faded away, Sora dropped on his behind and wiped his brow.

"Please tell me we won't have to deal with anything like that again?" Sora asked exhaustedly as Archive dropped to one knee. It was obvious that he was pretty tired too, though not to the same extent as Sora.

"I fear it will only become more difficult from here on out. They will no doubt become more desperate as time goes on." Archive responded. Sora groaned as he flopped on his back.

"And then I got a whole other quest to deal with when this is all over… Oh for the love of Kingdom Hearts, why can't I catch a break…?" He moaned with his hands covering his face.

"We can't rest for too long. The shackle is nearby." Archive stated before rising to his feet. With a resigned groan, Sora hauled himself up as well and the pair continued on their way to the obelisk. The Wolf and the Shades had already left, leaving no clues as to where they had gone.

"So, what was that trick you used to stop the pain? I didn't think Dark magic could heal." Sora asked as he rolled his shoulder.

"As it is right now, it can't. At least not the way other forms of healing magic work. The technique, or spell I suppose is more appropriate is called 'Purge'. It allows the user to, well, purge ailments or other afflictions from the target. Since the energies from the Torrasque were still lingering in you after the strike, I used Purge to remove them." Archive explained.

"I wonder if Riku could learn how to do that. He's pretty good at using Darkness." Sora mused.

"I wouldn't discount the possibility, but I don't consider it likely. Your friend has learned to master his power and in some ways he has managed to filter out the taint from it, but it is nevertheless still tainted. Unfortunately, that taint will affect techniques like Purge, which is why he can only use Darkness in combative methods. However, with experimentation and knowledge, it is conceivable that he could develop a new form of Purge to work around those obstacles." Archive replied. Sora wanted to continue the conversation, but he realized that would have to wait as they reached their destination. The obelisk lay before them.

"Well, at least I can get a quick rest out of this, provided the headache doesn't ruin it." Sora quipped as he raised Kingdom Key to the ready. He hadn't dismissed it since the battle with the giant monster, the Torrasque as Archive had called it.

"Godspeed, keybearer." Archive replied as he stepped back to stand guard. At Sora's command, the keyblade shot a beam from its tip to the obelisk. The glyphs began to glow brighter and brighter until the obelisk vanished from sight and Sora felt the familiar pain in his head start before he collapsed unconscious.

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it for now! Got some fights, some lore and it didn't feel like a chore to write!**

**Creativity: Yeah, especially since we thought this one was gonna be shorter.**

**Author: Yeah, well I felt we'd been taking it a little too easy on Sora and decided to throw a few more baddies at him than originally planned. Still had fun with it though.**

**Creativity: Yeah, but what about chapter 20? Isn't that one gonna be…**

**Author: It won't be too bad. It'll likely be longer, but I know that it won't be a chore to write. We've been building to this all season and now its finally here!**

**Yeah, needless to say I'm excited to write chapter 20. It's Friday night before I publish chapter 12 right now and while the story hasn't taken off like crazy, I didn't expect it to. It's not conventional KH all that much, I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the lore in some respects, there's literally 74.3K+ stories to choose from, so on and so forth. So, the idea that this was going to take off like Limit Breaker is kind of laughable, at least at the beginning. Limit Breaker's in way less crowded real-estate and its got generally longer chapters (for now), so it didn't have a lot of 'proving' to do.**

**Creativity: Probably doesn't help that you don't really return to a fandom once you've done a story for them. Don't really build a rep of any kind that way.**

**Author: Eh, I guess? I got a feeling that'll change when we finally finish 'the big one', but I'm getting ahead of myself. **

**Well, I think that's about it from me! Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see on Saturday!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Well, here we are. The end of season 1 for Before: Kingdom Hearts. It's taken a different trajectory than I had initially planned, but that's just par for the course at this point.**

**Creativity: So, how long do you think this one is gonna be?**

**Author: Honestly, not sure. Depends on how much I want to pull the heartstrings I guess.**

**Creativity: Oh, it's gonna be one of **_**those **_**chapters…**

**Author: It's not like I've been subtle about it. Besides, I don't think it's necessarily meaner than what I've done to Garter or Grey.**

**Creativity: I don't think a scorpion eating contest is quite comparable to what we're putting Ryo through.**

**Author: Yeah, you might be right on that.**

**So yeah, this is gonna be goodbye for a little while. I don't know how long it'll be before season 2 comes out, but it'll be a little while. I've got planning to do, two other projects to attend to, and that doesn't even cover Limit Breaker or Venom: Resurgence. **

**But before we go further, let's get the review responses out of the way:**

**And there's no reviews. Well, hopefully that'll change by next time. So, what else were we going to talk about?**

**Creativity: Actually, maybe we should save the announcements until after the chapter.**

**Author: Yeah, that's actually a good point. So, stick around after the chapter is done for some special announcements! **

**Creativity: Now, lets take care of the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Author: Thank you very much! Now then… **_**ahem…**_** We now proudly present chapter 20 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

It all felt wrong.

While Veris was the one actively thinking that very sentence, the sentiment hovered around the group of four like a miasma; one that was growing evermore heavy with every passing day and had done so ever since they left Atlantis several days ago. Ever since they interrogated Ryo about his secrets and lies, everything had just been on a slow, steady decline.

And Veris hated it. She hated what Ryo's secrets and lies had done to them all. She hated how he'd all but admitted he hadn't told them the whole truth and still refused to share what that truth was. She hated how Barkos was once again becoming embittered towards Ryo. But most of all, she hated seeing how Ryo was torturing himself with these secrets. What little he'd divulged about the nature of them had led her to the obvious conclusion that it involved all the messes they'd been wrapped up in since Woodfell had been raided, and that they whatever they involved meant something very personal to Ryo and it was tearing him apart. He'd admitted as much after all, but after everything, she was hesitant to take him at his word.

The worst part of it all was that all of this had caused her to begin re-evaluating the friendship between the four of them from the ground up and it made her realize that they probably were never as close as they, or at least she had thought up until recently. After Ryo arrived in the village and began living in the spare room, things had been predictably weird between them. After all, he was a complete stranger who her father had carried into their house very suddenly one day when she'd been reading a book about Aznad. Said stranger had been caked in mud, looked half dead and had apparently been carrying a sword that had been hastily wrapped up with a spare cloak that her father left on the table. After he'd recovered and woken up her father had made the aforementioned offer of shelter, so they were forced to get to know each other in some respects.

After that, Ryo had started doing jobs around town to build up funds for travelling. They didn't really see each other except in the mornings and evenings for meals. After a while, she decided to try having an honest conversation with the new resident instead of the brief small-talk they occasionally had at mealtimes, and while that probably helped, the real point at which they became friends was when he was out collecting some lumber and happened across Veris practicing ribbon dancing with some of her mother's old equipment. It had been embarrassing at first, but when he expressed curiosity as to why she was practicing it at all, she'd shared that her mother had been a performer before meeting her father, and that this was one of the few things she had to know her by, having lost her mother shortly after birth.

Maybe that was what helped foster their friendship in the beginning. Ever since she'd known him, Ryo had always carried an incredibly subtle undercurrent of loss with him. She didn't understand what it was until recently (and she still didn't feel she fully comprehended it yet), and while the loss she felt wasn't the same as his, it was loss all the same.

As they grew closer, she eventually introduced him to Garren and Barkos; friends she couldn't remember a time without. It had taken longer for Ryo to warm up to them than he had with Veris, and the same went for the other two boys, but eventually they became a tight-knit group.

Or had they?

Looking back, she realized that there had always been a distance between Ryo and the rest of them that she had never really noticed before. He'd always been a bit more on the quiet side, but there was a line between quiet and distant. Now she realized that whatever secrets that Ryo carried with him, whatever had chased him from his home to Woodfell, the until recently believed permanent loss of his magic, all of it had been weighing him down, holding him back.

And looking back still, she felt maybe she had known that the whole time. The others might have had an inkling from his behaviour, but they hadn't seen him slumped against a tree in exhaustion, looking miserable and defeated, heard him tossing, turning and muttering from nightmares, or witnessed him sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night to sit behind the house and look into the forest. She never knew what he was looking for when he did that but considering his superb night vision that they'd learned about, he was probably watching the bats. She'd occasionally see them darting overhead during the summer nights, especially when the moonlight made it easier to pick them out. She'd seen him watching them during the summer festival. He would always hang back and watch the night sky while people were partying around the bonfire held in the square.

Veris frowned. It felt wrong, recontextualizing what had been what had been fond memories with everything that had come to light, only furthering that maybe the group hadn't really been all that close at all. When they'd left Radiant Garden, she'd been so focused on trying to repair the friendship between them all; get back to their old group dynamic. However, all that had happened since then was blow after blow to that dynamic, and the gut-wrenching realization of just how fragile it was. It was only after the Dread King's forces attacked Woodfell that they began to see hints of the real Ryo. His skills as a swordsman, moments of leadership, knowledge of the arcane, but most of all, the secrets and lies. All of the secrets and lies that she hated.

However, that still didn't change the fact that the four of them were all they had at the moment. They were in this now, and until they weren't dealing with the Dread King, those weird monsters and whatever other insanity that the universe deigned to throw at them, they needed each other.

They'd stopped for a rest a little while ago, which had given Veris ample to have her mind sort all of this out, much to her own displeasure. It was all piling up and beginning to weigh on her, and she knew she wasn't alone in that. Everyone had changed the moment the breach stone first dragged them away. Ryo had become more engaged with the group, though he hadn't really come out of his shell all that much, Garren had become a lot more subdued, Barkos had slowly become more confrontational…

She wasn't sure how much she'd changed, but she was sure she had. Maybe she'd just become more disillusioned, but she doubted it only went that far.

Hopefully they'd get going soon. It was past noon already and they weren't keen on camping out in the open. They'd seen a mountain range in the distance, and they hoped to find a cave to camp out in before night fell, assuming there was a cave.

"Hey, you see that?"

Veris looked up from the ground where she'd been idly toying with a couple pieces of grass. It had been Garren who called it out. Looking in the direction he was gesturing, she could see a large column of smoke in the distance.

"It's too big to be a campfire…" Ryo muttered as his hand unconsciously began reaching for his new sword. He'd taken it with them after the breach stone took them from Atlantis. They'd all kept the weapons they found, though Barkos and Veris were still getting used to using short swords in place of their knives. It hadn't helped that the only person who could teach them a few of the basics was Ryo.

"You think it's a village raid?" Veris asked as she began thumbing her own weapon. Barkos shook his head.

"I don't think so. That isn't the right pattern for it. Could be a bandit camp, but I doubt they'd have fires going at this time… Could be a settlement." Barkos suggested.

"Should we check it out? We're pretty good for supplies and it could be dangerous." Ryo pointed out.

"I'd definitely prefer to sleep in a bed rather than on dirt and rocks, but that's just me." Veris stated. It was a sentiment that the group shared.

"Alright, so we're checking it out then." Garren stated as they all got to their feet and made sure they had everything before they began trekking towards the column of smoke. The whole way there, everyone was obviously on edge, though it wasn't due to how screwed up things were between them right now for a change. Instead, it was simply a case of being unsure what they were walking into. All of the insanity they'd been through was wearing them down.

It was a couple hours worth of walking before they finally close enough to the smoke column to see what was going on. As it turned out, it was actually pretty close to the mountain range they'd been initially heading towards, instead dipping into what looked initially like a quarry, but instead appeared to be old ruins that had sunken into the ground, creating a large cavity. The source of the fire was from a large, oven-looking contraption that looked to have been constructed very recently, as it wasn't covered in vines or sporting any signs of having weathered with age. There were also several others who were examining sections of the ruins and occasionally calling out to others who apparently just were meant to run things back and forth between people. Near the large oven was a massive tent that people kept bustling in and out of. Said tent was also adjacent to several other tents, though those had much less come and go.

"Well, not a settlement, but also probably not a bandit camp." Garren concluded.

"What's going on here?" Veris wondered aloud.

"Well, why don't we go ask them? I doubt they'll have swords pointed at us just because we showed up." Barkos suggested. After finding a point of entry, the group called out to the people in the pit and started making their way down as a few of them made their way up to meet them halfway.

"Good afternoon, travelers! What may I ask brings you all the way out here?" One of them asked. He was short and stocky, with blonde, sun-bleached hair, brown eyes and a jovial expression, though Ryo could see that at least part of it was an act. There was a cautious tone to his voice, mixed in with the slightly put on friendliness. Whatever was going on here, they clearly weren't expecting many visitors, or likely even just passerby's.

"We're travelers. We got lost on the road and saw the smoke from that oven, or whatever it is and thought it could be a settlement." Barkos answered evenly. The greeting party seemed a bit skeptical, but they seemed to accept their story. It wasn't untruthful, but it did leave out a few bits.

Like the breach stone. And the monsters. And the Dread king. But they didn't want that getting out quite just yet.

"Well, I suppose that there won't be any trouble if you rest here for the night. I'll send someone to see if there's any spare bunks available." The man replied, catching them off-guard with the offer.

"Oh no, that won't be necessary. We can just camp outside…" Veris started to protest, but the man would have none of it.

"Nonsense! How could I allow a traveler to sleep in the dirt if we have the ability to accommodate them? Killian!"

At the man's word, another person rushed up, this one looking only to be a year or two older than anyone in the group.

"Go see if we have any spare bunks for our guests. I'll see them to Trevor before returning to work." The man told the newcomer, who immediately nodded before hurrying off towards one of the tents at the end of the line of aforementioned tents.

"Sir, if I may ask, who are you and what's going on here?" Veris asked. The man smacked his forehead and let out a dramatic groan.

"How rude and absentmindedly! My apologies. My name's Theodore. I am a researcher from the University of Oxos." The man, now known as Theodore, informed them. He sounded particularly proud of the latter end of his introduction. Barkos' eyes went wide.

"You study at the University of Oxos?! It's my dream to even see it one day!" Barkos exclaimed. Theodore's eyes suddenly had a gleam of excitement.

"Is that so? Well, should you find yourself before the university one day, perhaps you could qualify for the entrance exam." Theodore mentioned offhand. Barkos looked thrilled by the idea, but his face fell a bit.

"As incredible as that would be, I don't think that's in the cards right now. We have a long road ahead of us." Barkos lamented before opting to switch subjects.

"If I may ask, what is a researcher of Oxos doing all the way out here? I'm assuming there's some significance to these ruins." Barkos inquired. The gleam in Theodore's eye only grew stronger.

"Well, there's been a recent push from the House to conduct archeological studies and many researchers, including myself, have seized on the opportunity to study the _tsubasa no aru _in depth." Theodore revealed. On reflex, there was a flash of tension through the group, though less so with Barkos.

"I'd heard that there had been a recent uptake in studying them, but may I ask what the reason behind it is?" Barkos inquired. Theodore gaped in surprise.

"Where to start! There's the fact that every one of their kind could use magic. It's actually quite a subject of scholarly debate whether or not they were the ones who first taught humans how to use magic, though it's widely agreed upon that they were true masters of the craft. Then there's the knowledge the must have accumulated. They were a long-lived people and they obviously had a codified system of writing. There isn't much surviving architecture, but what little we do have has gone long unstudied due to the stigma around even vague academic curiosity of them." Theodore ranted excitedly. Veris frowned.

"I don't think it's that surprising that people don't like talking about them. The war with them was devastating for us, even if we won." She muttered. Now it was Theodore's turn to frown.

"Be that as it may, there's still much we can learn from what they left behind. And besides, it's not like we exterminated them. We just chased them away." Theodore replied.

"Allegedly." Ryo muttered under his breath, though apparently not quiet enough for Theodore.

"Pardon? I mean, that's one of the few things we do know for certain happened; the war ended with the Winged Ones fleeing into the sky, never to return." Theodore lectured.

"I'm aware that they left, but I'm skeptical on why they left." Ryo answered in a clipped tone. Theodore raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, and why is that?" Theodore pressed. Seeing that he wouldn't let up, Ryo shot Theodore a glare before answering.

"Because history is written by the victors, regardless of the circumstances of that victory." Ryo replied. Theodore eyed Ryo for a few seconds before a grin slowly crept across his face.

"You'd make a good scholar." Theodore stated, much to the surprise of the others in the group.

"Wait what? He's questioning centuries of accepted history!" Barkos exclaimed. Theodore turned to Barkos.

"Exactly. We don't really know why they left. Just that they left. It was humanity, the victors, who recorded the history of not only the fact they left, but _why _they left. In fact, we've found some evidence as to at least a contributing factor to why they left." Theodore explained before his voice dropped to a hushed tone.

"According to what evidence we've been able to uncover in the underground ruins…" Theodore started before being interrupted.

"Hold up. Underground? These ruins go further down?" Garren asked, immediately on edge.

"Oh yes. Much of this structure sank underground some time ago, but many of the passageways are technically still accessible. We've found some old weapons and old skeletons, though we've tried to leave the latter undisturbed. Some may find this strange for a scholar, but I don't consider the prospect of disturbing the grave of the member of a magical species having good consequences. Now, where was I?" Theodore elaborated before trying to recall where he'd left off.

"Evidence underground." Ryo prompted.

"Ah yes, thank you. As I was saying, what evidence we've manage to find suggest that there was some form of calamity or plague that swept through the lands that rent the armies of both sides asunder. It was during this plague period the Winged Ones were said to have fled into the skies." Theodore revealed. Needless to say, this was something of a bombshell.

"Wait, if this 'calamity or plague' was so bad, why don't we know about it?" Garren questioned. Theodore stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"We're not sure yet, but I do have a few thoughts. You can imagine that after a long war that culminated with no real winner after both sides were decimated by a factor outside of anyone's control that caused one of the sides to just leave the war entirely would be demoralizing to the other. After all, even if they technically won, they still invested years, decades even of munny, resources and blood to a war, only to have it end with both sides in shambles and one of them turning around and leaving. It's not outside the realm of possibility that they dictated history to be their triumph over the enemy so as to not feel like the war was a mistake." Theodore mused.

"Or to save face." Ryo muttered again, though no one called him on it this time.

"This is some heavy stuff to take in…" Veris muttered. Even if they didn't show it, most of the assembled were in agreement.

"The potential revelations are certainly 'heavy', as you put it, but I personally find them better than deliberate ignorance. But enough about this topic. We're approaching the leader of our expedition." Theodore informed them before they entered a smaller tent. Sat at a simple desk made of two crates and a smooth wooden slab was a man that Ryo guessed was in his early to mid sixties. He was a bit on the thin side, but he still projected an aura of strength. He had a well-groomed beard and hair that was about ¾ of an inch long, cut with military precision.

"Theodore. I heard some travelers had arrived. I am to assume this is them, then?" The apparent leader asked as he looked up from his desk.

"Good afternoon, Trevor. Yes, these are the travellers. I thought it only proper to offer them lodgings for tonight, provided we have spare bunks." Theodore explained. The leader, now known as Trevor, frowned a bit.

"That decision is _mine _to make Trevor. I advise that you not offer such a thing again without first consulting me. I consider it more proper to not offer what may be impossible to deliver." Trevor replied in an admonishing tone. Theodore looked a bit embarrassed, but he kept his silence.

"That being said, I've already spoken with Killian, who informed that we do indeed have enough spare bunks to accommodate them for at least one night." Trevor added with a ghost of a smirk. The group was visibly relieved that they wouldn't have to deal with another night on cold dirt.

"Killian will show you to the spare bunks. After you all are settled in, dinner will be served in about two hours. Feel free to explore the site, though the undergrounds are expressly forbidden except for authorized personnel." Trevor told them.

"No going underground. Got it." Garren replied.

"After our recent underground adventures, I have absolutely no intention of straying underground for a very long time." Barkos added before shuddering a bit. As they left the tent, they found the boy from earlier waiting outside from earlier.

"Hello. You're Killian, right?" Ryo greeted. The boy nodded.

"I'm one of the aides for the researchers. I've been instructed to lead you to your bunks." Killian answered before turning and striding off towards a large tent before holding the flap open for the group to enter. Inside were rows upon rows of cots.

"This way, please." Killian instructed as he strode to the end of the tent. The group followed him down until Killian stopped and gestured to four cots.

"If you have need of anything, please don't hesitate to ask me or one of the other aides." Killian stated before promptly departing.

"He's friendly." Garren commented as he slung off his pack and laid it on the ground before laying down on his cot, sighing with relief. Ryo similarly laid his pack on the ground, but only sat down on his cot.

"I think I'll go explore. Maybe some of the researchers will let me in on some findings." Barkos suddenly announced before dropping his pack and striding out of the tent. He was only gone for a few minutes before Ryo suddenly stood up.

"I'm going to head out for a bit. I'm feeling restless." Ryo stated before starting to walk out.

"Don't even think about trying to sneak into those ruins." Veris warned him sharply. Ryo rolled his eyes.

"Please. I learned my lesson." He shot back before marching out. Veris eyed him until he was out of sight before collapsing backwards onto her cot with a tired sigh.

"Do you think he's going to try and break into those ruins?" Veris asked Garren, who had propped himself up on his elbows when Ryo had started walking off.

"I don't think he's gonna do that right now. I mean, it's broad daylight right now. Maybe we should keep an eye on him when the sun goes down." Garren suggested. Veris groaned and buried her face in her hands.

"How did things get this bad?" She asked miserably, her voice muffled by her palms. Garren frowned as he sat up the whole way.

"I don't know. He's always been… cagey, but not like this. I just wish he'd come clean with what's been bugging him. It's not like it's going to make things worse at this point." Garren muttered. Veris frowned.

"Honestly, at this point I'm wondering if that's _exactly _what's going to happen. Why would he be so vehemently against coming clean if whatever's getting to him like this wasn't going to possibly to ruin his friendship with us?" Veris asked shakily. Garren grabbed her shoulder.

"I don't believe that, and neither should you. I still have faith it'll work out eventually." Garren told her. Veris shakily smiled.

"I guess there's still some of the you from Woodfell still in there. Not all of that confidence was just performative bravado." She replied. Garren smirked a bit before leaning back in his cot.

"More than you think." He shot back.

* * *

_Later that evening…_

There was nothing better than a full stomach of hot food to end the day on, in Veris' opinion. They hadn't eaten something that good since they'd left Radiant Garden, and since they didn't have to pitch tents or keep watch, she could get a full night's sleep as well! However, she wasn't feeling particularly sleepy yet, so she decided to open the book she'd been given by Queen Arryn. She'd been trying to master the blizzard spell for some time but had only been met with frustration and failure. She had no problem with fire magic. She could cast Fire without breaking a sweat, Fira took a bit of effort, but it wasn't nearly as draining on her stamina, and she was even getting close to Firaga. Additionally, she'd learned how to perform double and even triple fire and Fira spells, though those took a bit more time for her to cast. But somehow, blizzard eluded her.

"So, how was your exploring, you two?" Garren asked Ryo and Barkos as they sat down on their cots.

"Well, I talked with a few researchers and they showed me some of the findings they recorded. Apparently, the _tsubasa no aru _recorded everything in the same runes used for Runic magic. I shared that connection and one of them got really excited. He suspects that perhaps there's more secrets hidden here that can only be discovered through magic. I don't know about that, though. According to what I've heard, Runic magic was developed for use by people who don't have inherent magical abilities, and one of the widely accepted facts about the Winged Ones was that they all possessed magical abilities. Why would they have needed Runic magic?" Barkos shared as he lay down and took out a book from his pack.

"Mainly just walked around and looked at the ruins, but I did notice something pretty interesting at the entrance to the underground…" Ryo started before the others suddenly all looked at him.

"Please tell me you didn't go in!" Veris exclaimed, though she kept her voice down. Luckily, there wasn't anyone else around to hear them, but Ryo was still quick to wave her down.

"Calm down! I didn't put a toe across the threshold. Anyway, I just noticed some of the carvings on the entrance. It read a bit strange. The positioning would make you think that it would be about the underground entrance, but…" Ryo continued before drifting off. Veris leaned forward, partially out of curiosity, partially suspicious that Ryo was once again deliberately withholding information.

"But… Come on, don't leave us hanging." Veris prompted. Ryo closed his eyes as he pinched his brow.

"Sorry, it's just really confusing. The carvings read like a riddle that makes no sense. The first section of the riddle talked about an 'uncleaved grand spire' that 'stands above all others', which makes no sense given the carvings' location. It was above the entrance into the underground ruins, which are _underground_ and don't _stand above _anything." Ryo explained. Barkos stroked his chin.

"Isn't it possible that the ruins were above ground before sinking underground? That could explain the 'grand spire' the riddle is in reference to." Barkos countered. His tone had a hint of snideness, though there was genuine curiosity in it. Ryo was already armed with a retort.

"Not likely. The 'uncleaved' part says to me that whatever this 'grand spire' is, it isn't in the ruins. Practically all of the stones in the ruins are 'cleaved' in some form or another, whether they're cut to shape or having carvings on them." Ryo argued.

"Well then, the answer's obvious, isn't it?" Veris chimed in, to the surprise of Ryo and Barkos.

"I mean, 'grand spire', 'uncleaved', What about that doesn't say mountain?" Veris pointed out. Ryo smacked his forehead.

"And now I feel monumentally stupid." He muttered. It was obvious that Barkos had much the same opinion.

"What did the rest of it say?" Barkos asked, looking to quickly move past that part of the riddle.

"When stood before the ledger, state your name and enter." Ryo finished. Everyone looked at him confusedly.

"Wait, state your name? How does that even work?" Garren questioned.

"I'm not sure, but now that I know where to look, I think I should check it out as soon as possible." Ryo answered, only for Veris to grab his arm.

"You mean _we. _After the insanity we went through in Atlantis, we're not letting you go prancing off to get yourself killed or worse." Veris told him in a voice that left no room for debate.

"Besides, it specified that the mountain was 'the grand peak' and that means tallest to me. So you'll need to wait until the sun is out to see which mountain to go to." Veris pointed out. Ryo stared back at her.

"I have night vision, remember?" He shot back. Veris surged to her feet and glared at him.

"Do you really want to do this? Because I am perfectly willing to knock you out and tie you to that cot if it means finally keeping you from running off and getting into trouble." She growled at him. Barkos and Garren both straightened up, eyes flicking between the two members of their group with concern. For a few very tense moments, it looked like it could quite possibly get ugly, but Ryo backed down and lay down on the cot.

"Tomorrow then. We'll find the mountain and figure out what the 'ledger' and 'stating you name' means." Ryo conceded before throwing his covers over himself and making it clear he wouldn't be speaking to anyone else for the rest of the night. Veris stayed standing for a moment longer before slumping down on her cot and letting out sigh that was equal parts relief and exasperation. Garren and Barkos managed to hold back their own sighs of relief before they rolled onto their sides and pulled their own covers over for sleep. Once she was satisfied that Ryo wasn't going to try sneaking off again, she lay down on her own cot and pulled the covers over, though she didn't close her eyes, mostly because she wasn't ready to just believe that Ryo wouldn't try to sneak off quite yet. However, eventually her eyes grew too heavy and she drifted into unconsciousness.

* * *

_The next day…_

Veris' eyes cracked open blearily before squinting at the sunlight that was peaking through the flap at the far end of the tent. After pushing the cover back, she slowly hauled herself up to a sitting position before looking around. Garren and Barkos were getting dressed and reading respectively, but she couldn't help but notice that there was someone missing. The realization jolted her awake as she immediately leapt from bed and began pulling on her boots.

"Of course he snuck off! We should have taken watches or actually have tied him down for the night!" She exclaimed angrily.

"Relax. He's just getting breakfast. He left a couple minutes before you woke up." Barkos told her without looking up from his book. Upon hearing this, Veris felt embarrassed, but she was still suspicious.

"He didn't try to run off last night?" Veris asked as she kept pulling her boots on.

"I thought he was going to last night. It was past midnight and I heard him get up. I followed him out of the tent, but he just wanted to look at the sky. Just sat down outside the tent, out of the way and stared at the sky for a while, then came back in and went to sleep.

"Huh. Guess I shouldn't be surprised. He did that a fair bit when we still lived in Woodfell." Veris replied before she finished tying her boots and grabbed her pack.

"Well, let's go join him for breakfast. He's probably all sorts of impatient to get to the mountains now that he has a lead on whatever the hell is bothering him so much." Veris stated. Since Garren and Barkos had just been waiting for her to get up, the three were immediately on their way to cooks' tent. Ryo was seated at the end of a long table and was picking at some sausages and bread.

The others went and grabbed their own food and sat down with him, finishing their breakfasts before he did. However, he did start eating a bit faster when they arrived. Once they finished off all of the food, they went to see Trevor, thanking him and Theodore for the expedition's hospitality before they made their way out of the ruins and started their search for the 'grand spire' that the riddle had referenced.

It wasn't that hard to figure out. There was one mountain in the range that was quite obviously larger than the rest. Problem was that they didn't know what the significance of the peak was to the riddle. Still, they at least had an objective, so they made their way towards the mountain at a brisk pace. Eventually they reached the base of the mountain in question, though they still needed to figure out what the riddle meant regarding the 'grand spire'. So, they fanned out and started searching.

The search ended up taking longer than they anticipated, with the sun having passed its zenith a few hours ago and patience of all involved was beginning to wear thin.

"We've been here for hours and we haven't found anything! Seriously, what are we even looking for?!" Barkos complained as he kicked at a few loose stones.

"I don't know, the carving was vague about that! Best guess is we're looking for a cave or maybe a secret entrance of some kind." Ryo shouted back. He'd climbed up several weathered, flat sections of rock that functioned rather well as stairs but were covered in moss and lichen and had been weathered by centuries of age. As he examined the rock, he brushed his hand across it to wipe away some of the moss, only to be surprised when he felt unusually smooth and flat stone underneath.

"Hey, up here! I think I might have found something!" Ryo called over his shoulder. It wasn't long before they'd joined him on the rock shelf.

"So, you found a flat wall? That's it?" Barkos asked, his temper beginning to flare.

"I don't think it's _just _a flat wall." Ryo responded as he began examining it before his hand passed over a section of it which suddenly flashed! Ryo jumped back in surprise, his hand immediately going for his sword as everyone else also went for their weapons. However, the glow turned a very familiar shade of purple before the ground began to shake.

"Okay, what did you do?" Barkos asked Ryo.

"Oh, like I have any clue." Ryo shot back as the ground kept shaking. The wall began to shudder before it started descending away to reveal a tunnel that led into the heart of the mountain. The group slowly lowered their weapons, but they didn't fully drop their guard. They could hear the sound of air rushing out of the tunnel ominously.

"Well, I guess that solves the first part of the riddle." Barkos muttered as Ryo took a few steps forward.

"So, everyone ready to keep going?" Ryo asked. There was no confirmation, but there was no denial either. There was no need for words at this point. They knew he was going in whether they went with him or not, especially since they were literally at the door this time, so they knew where they were going too. Stepping into the tunnel, Veris conjured up a flame in her palm as they advanced down the corridor. It was impeccably smooth, having gone undisturbed for a very long time as evidenced by the dust that lingered from them opening the secret entrance. They walked down the corridor until they finally reached a massive chamber that was semi-circular, except for the massive wall on the other side of the far side of the room. As they approached, they could see that the wall was covered from ceiling to floor in carvings.

"Okay… What do we do now?" Garren asked as he looked around.

"The riddle said _when stood before the ledger, state your name and enter."_ Ryo replied as he made his way to the wall on the far side of the room before checking the carvings.

"This doesn't make any sense… These are all just random words. There's no sentences, no riddle… What's the point of all this?!" Ryo demanded as he slammed his hand against the wall in frustration. However, something did start to happen. The rune he'd slammed his hand against glowed for a brief second before it stopped. Then it proceeded to blast Ryo with a burst of familiar purple energy! Ryo was sent flying back several feet and landed on his back, groaning in pain.

"I think you did it wrong." Barkos commented dryly as Garren helped Ryo to his feet.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Ryo grumbled. Watching the whole exchange, Veris couldn't help but smile a bit. This felt more in-step with how things used to be. Maybe things weren't quite as bad as she thought. Or they were getting better. She'd take either at this point.

"Okay, so let's try to figure out the whole 'name' thing you mentioned earlier before we go randomly hitting the wall again." Veris suggested while trying (somewhat successfully) to keep down any giggles from Ryo's misfortune.

"Yeah. Lets." Ryo replied in a clipped tone before he started examining the wall again, though he kept his distance this time.

"You said it's just a random jumble of runes, right? What does any of that have to do with 'speaking your name'? Are any of these a name?" Veris asked. Ryo looked up at them and frowned in concentration.

"None that are exclusively names. Sky, moon, stone, none of these are… wait…" Ryo started before his voice fell away. They could hear the realization in his voice.

"You figure it out?" Barkos asked in a surprised and curious tone.

"It couldn't be that simple, could it…?" Ryo murmured as he slowly turned his hand to look at his palm. He slowly began to unstrap the bracers he'd received from King Ansem and looked at the bare skin of his hand.

"Can I still…" Ryo asked under his breath as he began concentrating. The rest of the group watched with curiosity that slowly turned to shock as they watched glowing purple lines begin to appear on the flesh of Ryo's palm, eventually taking the shape of a rune, though it wasn't one that any of them recognized.

"Um, Ryo? What is that?" Veris asked in a concerned voice. Ryo frowned.

"The answer… possibly…" He replied before he began examining the wall again until he found a matching rune and pressed his palm to it.

The rune began to glow the same purple as its energy counterpart before the energy surged down the wall until it reached the center of the wall and spread out into a large rounded form before it vanished, and so did the section of wall that had been covered in the energy, leaving another tunnel in its place.

"What was that? Ryo, how did you solve the riddle?" Veris asked as Ryo began walking towards the tunnel entrance.

"It wanted a name. I gave it one." Ryo answered vaguely as he began to vanish into the tunnel.

"What does that even mean?! Hey, wait up!"

The three hurried after him into the darkness, grateful for the torchlight Veris provided.

"Hey, are you gonna explain the answer to that riddle? We're really in the dark here, literally and metaphorically." Veris asked as Ryo just kept striding into the darkness.

"Yeah, what was the deal with that rune? How is that related to your name?" Barkos asked suspiciously.

"It's my other name." Ryo responded as his pace picked up.

"Hey, are you alright?" Veris asked him with a concerned look on her face.

"I think it's best to just let him do what he needs to do right now." Garren suggested. Veris didn't like the idea but considering how Ryo was getting more and more agitated by the minute, she decided to heed Garren's words. Besides, they were reaching the end of the tunnel, as evidenced by the light up ahead.

"Wait a minute… Why is there light up ahead?" Veris asked. Ryo had broken into a jog and had cleared the tunnel already. The others hurried after him and found their breath taken away.

Stretching out before them was a gargantuan cavern that was illuminated by several large crystal formations of many varying colors. And that wasn't even taking into account the massive sprawling city laid out before them. It was very… boxy in design, though it was still laid out in a round manner. The center however, was the most eye-catching, in that it didn't seem to be there. From their vantage point, they could see a massive crater in the center of the city, as if the centerpiece of the city had been ripped from the ground.

"Woah… And I thought Radiant Garden or Atlantis were impressive…" Veris murmured.

"Wasn't expecting this." Barkos muttered. Ryo didn't say anything. Instead, he was already making his way down to the city at an urgent pace.

"Hey, where are you going? Wait up!" Garren called after Ryo as they hurried after him. By the time they reached ground level, Ryo was already rushing into the city, and seemed to have a pretty good idea of where he was going. As they rushed to keep up with him, the ground was wondering why this city was even here. Who built it? Why was it abandoned? Also, what was the deal with that crater?

Eventually, they found Ryo had come to a stop in front of a large building that looked like a temple of some kind. It was one of the few round structures in the ancient city, and had two large statues on pedestals out front, both of them of warriors with their swords jabbed into the ground with their palms resting on the pommels of the blades. Emerging from their backs were massive pairs of wings. The one on the left had her wings flared out wide, while the one on the right had his wings draped over his shoulders. The statues were in remarkable shape, considering how long the city had likely been abandoned for.

"What is this place?" Barkos breathed as he looked up at it.

"Best word to describe it is a library." Ryo answered as he strode inside.

"What do you mean 'best word'? And how do you know all this?! Ryo, seriously! What's going on?!" Veris demanded, but Ryo just kept striding into the building.

"I need answers, and this is probably the only place I can find them. I need to know…" He started saying before he drifted off. Hurrying in after him, they saw him approaching a large stone alter of some kind before pressing his palm to it. They saw a familiar purple glow before a strange mist and light began to rise from the alter.

"Ryo, what in the name of all that is holy are you doing?!" Garren asked in a slightly panicked tone.

"Finding answers! No matter how much I may not like them…" Ryo responded, his voice dropping significantly towards the end. The mist faded and light took a shape very familiar to Barkos.

"Those are runes… What are you…" Barkos wondered aloud as the runes began shifting, changing in color and shape at a pace that was becoming quite rapid. Then, three sigils appeared before them. One of them was familiar enough. It was the Wrath sigil from Radiant Garden. The second was slightly familiar. They'd seen it in the caverns beneath Atlantis; the Anguish rune. The third one was completely foreign to them, but Ryo seemed to at least vaguely recognize it. Or he was feeling overwhelmed by something.

"No… But why… Why go that far, only to…" Ryo started before he slumped over. Veris went to approach but paused when she saw black wisps beginning to rise from Ryo's body.

"After _everything _that… They _dare…_ What have they _done…_?!" Ryo ranted as the wisps began to twist violently. Purple energy began to join the wisps as it began to whirl and roar around Ryo like a small storm before he fell to his knees and it all faded.

"What have _we done…_" Ryo choked out.

"Ryo… Talk to us… What is this all about?" Veris asked quietly, though she was still worried about setting him off. There were several agonizingly long moments of silence before he finally spoke.

"When I arrived in Woodfell after that… fight… It was more than a fight… I discovered my people were planning to attack the world; said that it was high time to 'reclaim it'. We'd been taught that we'd left the world to humanity because it would stop fighting and destroying the world, so I sabotaged their plans, but when I tried to escape I was attacked and somehow ended up in the middle of nowhere, with my powers inaccessible…" Ryo babbled.

"Woah, woah, slow down, Ryo! Why are you separating humanity and 'your people'? You're human." Garren said, before everyone paused.

"You are human… right?" Barkos asked, timidly adding the last part. Ryo couldn't bring himself to look at them. Instead, he shut his eyes and silently began peeling off his tunic, then undershirt before turning away from them.

"Um, Ryo? What exactly are you doing?" Veris asked in a scared and confused tone. She received no response. Instead, they saw Ryo's back muscles begin to tense up and familiar purple sparks begin to dance across his exposed back. They heard him grunt in concentration before noticing the energy began to collect on his shoulder-blades and stretch down to about mid-back before it began to stretch out from his body, forming what looked like a frame of energy for… wings…

"No…" Barkos murmured, his eyes wide with shock.

"It… can't be…" Veris breathed as she took a step back.

"You're… you're a…" Garren stammered, though he couldn't finish the words.

However, this seemed to be too much for Ryo to handle as he suddenly cried out and the energy suddenly all snapped back into his back before vanishing. He collapsed on his front, gasping for breath as he slowly pushed himself up to one knee.

"I'm… I'm one of the Winged people… I'm a _tsubasa no aru"_

* * *

**HELLO BOMBSHELL!**

**Creativity: Oh please, like the readers couldn't have seen that coming. **

**Author: Doesn't cheapen it to me.**

**So yeah, that's where Ryo's crazy swordsmanship, dark powers of darkness and his arcane knowledge come from. As for why his powers have been on the fritz, I think I've hinted at that enough. His people did some seriously bad shit and he learned about some of it, coupled with the fact that he couldn't go home, 'his soul was twisted and contorted, bottlenecking his power'. Then he started learning about even more bad shit and things got worse. So, why is he getting better now? Well, I think that's obvious. More in-depth discussion can be had there for those interested, but for those who are patient enough, your patience will be rewarded in season 2!**

**Creativity: So, before we do the teaser for season 2, should we do the announcement thing?**

**Author: Ah, yes! Good catch!**

**So, I've decided to write a mini-series that takes place in parallel with Before: KH that will run about four or five chapters long about Aqua. I considered originally slotting it into the standard chapters for season 2 or 3, but I decided I'd much rather have it as it's own standalone thing.**

**Creativity: You could think of this as being similar to KH 0.2 in some regards.**

**Author: An astute observation.**

**Now, I think we've all had enough for now. But before we sign off for what will be a while (for this story) Let us leave you all with a teaser for the next season of Before: Kingdom Hearts.**

_Far away, in the middle of a dusty, gray stretch of land was situated a massive, black fortress. It was surrounded by a mote filled with a dark blue and black liquid that frothed and hissed but did not bubble. The castle guards stood stiff as statues, dressed in dark blue and black armor and masks. Deep within this miserable fortress sat a giant of a man, seven feet tall and covered head to toe in thick plat armor. At his side was an enormous war axe with a black, wooden handle and a black/blue blade. The man's face was obscured behind a helmet, but his glowing, dark blue eyes were very much visible. _

"_So, one of _them _deigns to return to this dying world… The nerve of them…" the man muttered, his voice echoing out from the helmet. The man slowly reached over the side of his throne and closed his fingers around the axe handle. _

_"The calamity began in war… And with its end came my beginning… The legacy your people left behind…" _

_The man hefted the axe up and leaned forward on the throne before slowly running an armored thumb along the sharp blade of the axe._

"_The legacy you all fled from, leaving us here to rot… along with the land you stole the heart from…"_

_The man hefted the axe into the air and let it drop, letting the end of the handle strike the ground with an echoing thud that reverberated through the entire fortress. The axe blade began to crackle with dark blue and black energy._

"_Now, you will face judgement before me… suffer for your crimes… then you will return what you stole… and I will cast you into abyss… A final act of my vengeance…"_

**Remember…**

**Before: Kingdom Hearts**


	21. Chapter 21

**Oh, man does it feel good to be back! **

**Creativity: New year, lots of work for other stories done in the meantime, a new term of college about to start and we're FREAKING THE F*** OUT!**

**Author: I know! It's amazing…**

**Welcome everyone, to season 2 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! It's been quite some time since we sat down to work on this, and we've had plenty of time to think about where the story was heading. Plus, we've been working on the miniseries for Before: KH. Progress has been slow on that, but it's been happening. **

**What else has been happening? Oh yes! We've released four chapters of another project of ours, titled Star Wars: Twilight Blade. If you like Star Wars, perhaps go give it a look. Limit Breaker has reached twenty five chapters as of this writing, so that's also pretty good.**

**Creativity: Anything else you wanna cover in terms of status update, or should we head into the reviews?**

**Author: I'm thinking reviews, get them out of the way now: **

**CeleneTheAngel: Yeah, it was pretty obvious, but I figured the small bits I was dropping throughout the season made it feel more organic. No, this isn't the first time the **_**tsubasa no aru. **_**They were mentioned by name in chapter two and there's been reference to them as Winged and other such bits and bobs in other chapters. **

**Creativity: Also, yes indeed, hello Dread King! I'll field the rest of the review response, boss. So, where were we…? Ah, yes! So, the blue monsters do serve the Dread King, but they aren't **_**his **_**per se. Hints have been left for their association, with the biggest being in chapter eight, when Sora reaches the courtyard and starts examining the carvings. Other hints to this can be found in chapter 11 I believe, and certainly in chapter 17.**

**As for the Dread King, you'll find out more about him soon enough. Same with the whole war. So, stay tuned!**

**Author: Thanks for that, Creativity! Also, that concludes the reviews! **

**Now then, when we last left off, our heroes had happened upon an archeological investigation of some **_**tsubasa no aru**_** ruins. With Ryo's arcane knowledge and ability to read magic runes, they solved a riddle that led them to an ancient city beneath a mountain, once home to the Winged people. Upon this discovery, Ryo sought out an ancient library within the city and found knowledge that he found greatly distressing. When confronted by his companions why he'd been searching for this knowledge, Ryo revealed to them that he is, in fact, one of the **_**tsubasa no aru. **_

**And on that bombshell, it's time to begin season 2 properly! But before we do, here's the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Now, without further ado, allow us to proudly present chapter 21 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

_"Hurry up Leith! If we're late again, master Volcan is going to blow his lid again!"_

_"Oh, fine! You just want to show off at sparring practice again,__ Ryo!"_

_"No, that's Phoenix."_

_"Oh sure. I just want to prove I know my way around a fight. Right Terrek?"_

_"How exactly is that not showing off?"_

_"Look, we're just wasting time here! Let's go go go!"_

_"You're always in a rush aren't you. Seriously Tempest, can't you just sit still for a single moment?"_

_"Nope! Can't! Always need to move! Unless it's naptime! You'd think you'd know that after all this time, Shiori!"_

_"Lets just go..."_

* * *

Far off, in the distant corners of the world, there was a barren place. Its lands devoid of color, animals or even plants. It was a dead place, cold and gray. The clouds above were a constant stormy color, constantly blotting out the blue sky. And yet, it never rained. Thunder didn't sound, lightning didn't flash, they just silently roiled. In the middle of this land was an incomplete ring of mountains, marked, scored and gashed. Barren peaks that reached into the sky, but never came close to the perpetual cloud cover, save for one at the 'top' of the ring. Though, it would perhaps be more appropriate to call it two mountains, as this one had been split in half, straight down the middle.

Situated in the middle of this ring of mountains was a castle, composed of stone that looked like it had been burned repeatedly prior to and during construction. Dark blue cracks ran through the stone, occasionally pulsing a similar color, as if like a heartbeat. The walls of this desolate fortress were patrolled by figures dressed in black and blue armor and masks of the same color.

Suddenly, the air began to shift before the ebony gates of the fortress. Dark blue and black energy began to crackle before there was a crackling _thoom_ sound and two more figures appeared, dressed in theme with the patrolling guards, though their own armor looked more refined and opulent. One had a whip-like length of chain with a bladed cage of sort at the end belted to their hip while another had a sword that looked like it would have been incredibly ornate at one point.

They approached the gate and held up their hands, dark blue pulsing from them. The gates shuddered and groaned before they began to slowly swing open. The two stepped forward and into the fortress. The interior was decorated with a dark blue carpet that stretched the entire length of the entrance hall into the foyer. Along the hallway were large black pillars, in between which there were pedestals atop which stood suits of jet black armor. There were torches fixed to the pillars, the flames from them dark blue and wreathed in ethereal black wisps.

The two strode down the hallway with a smooth, confident gait. Almost too smooth, too effortless. Eventually they reached the foyer, which was decorated with yet more suits of armor and a strange fountain in the center of the foyer. It was circular and had the same rune carved into it around the rim, over and over again. From the top of the fountain, which was shaped like a bowl, a constant stream of that same dark blue and black energy burned like some sort of strange fire. Additionally, the foyer had two staircases that curved down from a second level. Situated in between those staircases was a statue of a human, kneeled over on their hands and knees. Carved into their forehead was the same symbol that was carved into the fountain. From their eyes fell the same energy that burned in the torches and the fountain, falling down like tears. The figures walked past the fountain and walked up the left staircase to the second floor and proceeded down the hallway. There were several branching corridors, but they ignored them and simply continued all the way to the end of the hallway. There was another large set of doors, these ones wrought from ebony steel. They waited patiently in front of the doors before they began to shift, swinging inwards. They crossed the threshold into the apparent throne room. Even by the standards of the rest of the fortress, it was dimly lit, with the figure sitting on the massive, twisted throne at the back mostly obscured in shadow. What little was visible of the figure on the throne consisted of the arms resting on the arms of the throne and the legs. They were all clad in heavy plate armor, with the fingers being clawed. Leaning next to the throne was a massive battle axe, the shaft made of jet black wood, with glowing blue cracks across its finish, and a large curved blade, akin to that of an executioner's axe.

"So… You've returned…" The figure on the throne muttered, their voice reverberating through the room. The two who had just entered bowed before the throne's occupant.

"Where is the Heart?" The figure on the throne demanded. A palpable stillness came over the room.

"We failed to retrieve the Heart. We ran into… complications…" The whip-wielder informed the figure on the throne, who shifted forward a bit.

"I fail to see how 'complications' could have arisen from Atlantis of all places. My instructions were quite clear: Make your move while the explorers had the Atlanteans were distracted. What could possibly have happened to derail…" The figure on the throne began to berate, his voice as cold and biting as steel. However, before he got any further, the whip-wielder cut in.

"One of _them_ appeared via our missing breach stone, accompanied by a magician and two ordinary humans. We were unable to confirm, but I believe that they may have at least at one point been in contact with a Dark Shard." The whip-wielder revealed. The figure on the throne leaned forward, their head coming into the light. Their face was concealed by a large, heavy helmet, but their dark blue eyes were visible between the slots in the helmet's visor.

"I am going to request that you repeat yourself." The figure hissed.

"We encountered a Winged One in Atlantis, having arrived there by breach stone. It's all but confirmed that they were at least at one point in possession of a Dark Shard." The whip-wielder replied.

"And you are certain of this?" The figure on the throne asked again, their voice sounding more dangerous with each passing moment.

"Positive." The whip-wielder replied.

"Very well then… leave me…" The figure ordered. The two others rose to their feet and swiftly departed the throne room. The figure on the throne took a deep breath before letting out a low growl.

"So… After all this time, one of you deigns to return to the World… the nerve of you…" The figure growled as dark blue and black energy began to swirl around him before he slowly rose from his throne, the armor creaking as if it hadn't moved in quite some time.

"I wonder… What would draw you here after all this time? What would bring you back to this world left to rot? Curiosity? Ignorance? Conquest?" The figure questioned as they reached back and wrapped their fingers around the axe.

"It matters little to me, anyway. All that matters is that you possess something I need and that I will have it, one way or another. And, you have crimes to answer for." The figure stated as they ran their thumb along the length of the ebony blade, the energy surrounding it snapping and hissing in response.

"So… Let my voice be heard by you, who condemned us all! Let it be heard that there is no mountain peak, no caverns deep, no fortress and no crevice where I will not find you. I will strip you of your wings and carve out your dark heart before I leave you to the deepest pits of misery. That is my vengeance."

* * *

Veris, Barkos and Garren were still staring at Ryo as though he'd suddenly sprouted a second head and it was that of a fish. He had seemingly recovered from the strain of trying to some his _wings, _though he'd already recovered more than enough to drop one hell of a bombshell; a bombshell related quite closely to said wings, as a matter of fact.

"You… You're…" Garren stuttered.

"You're a…" Veris tried to speak, but the words got stuck in her throat.

Barkos didn't quite have such a reaction. Instead, his reaction was to seize his bow, nock an arrow and prepare to aim it at Ryo.

"What… The hell… is going on here." Barkos growled out as he glared at Ryo, who couldn't bring himself to meet their eyes.

"It's…complic…" Ryo started to say, only for Barkos to cut him off.

"Oh no, you are NOT pulling that now! You're going to explain _everything, _or I'm going to put this arrow through your leg, then another in between your eyes!" Barkos roared. Luckily, his outburst was enough to jolt Veris and Garren out of their stupors. The former quickly placed herself between Barkos and Ryo while the latter immediately restrained Barkos and did his best to get the bow and arrow out of Barkos' hands. It was a short-lived struggle, and hardly one at that, but Garren got the weapon away from the emotionally unstable Barkos and got him to calm down. Relatively, anyway. He was still glaring death at Ryo, who had recovered enough to get to his feet and pull his shirt and tunic back on.

"You're right… You're right, you all deserve to know… I'm just not sure how much of it is real and how much of it was lies anymore…" Ryo explained before he sat down shakily on some nearby debris within the 'library' where the latest schism between Ryo and the rest of the group had started.

"Or, _you're _lying to cover your own ass." Barkos hissed.

"Hey, enough!" Garren growled, putting a hard hand on Barkos' shoulder before turning his gaze to Ryo.

"So, you're one of… them… Okay, how'd you get here?" Garren asked. Ryo took a deep breath.

"This is going to take some history to explain. You all know the general sequence of events, but It'll be important." Ryo informed them before he began his explanation properly.

"Long ago, my people lived here, on this World. We had many cities above and below ground and lived in peace for millennia. However, there was a cataclysm of some kind. All detail of the nature of that cataclysm was struck from memory and archive, so I can't say for sure what it was, but I do know that our people were forced to take refuge underground and went into a hibernation of some kind." Ryo began explaining.

"Right, a bunch of the old stories say you were originally found underground when we were digging in the mountains." Veris recalled. Ryo nodded.

"It was around that time when we started to wake up. No one was really sure what triggered it, but when the first humans entered what at the time would have been a tomb, we all started awakening across the World. We emerged into the sunlight for the first time in… Who knows how long." Ryo continued.

"And things were peaceful for a while, right?" Garren inquired.

"Yeah, things were peaceful. Better than peaceful. My people shared our knowledge of the arcane with yours and in turn, they brought things like their art, handcrafted materials and most of all, their ingenuity and shared that. Looking back on it, my people were rather limited in terms of creative expression. Most of it was relegated to sculptures or displays of magic. We didn't even really have music or singing. We had chants and that was about it." Ryo said with a rueful smile, though with small hints of bitterness.

"Jeez, doesn't sound like your people were a lot of fun." Garren tried to joke, though it landed on deaf ears.

"I suppose they could be, from a certain point of view. But yeah, things were better than peaceful. Until they weren't. The one detail about the war that remains constant is that humans struck first. I'm not sure why, but that detail remains constant in both human telling and mine. Maybe humanity felt threatened, jealous or there was some other slight committed against them, but in the dead of night, human soldiers raided one of our settlements with the intent of razing it to the ground. A lucky few managed to escape before the bloodbath got into full swing and carried news of this to the other settlements and cities. It wasn't recorded whether or not it was coordinated or ordered, but many of my people like to believe it so. I'm of the opinion it was just extremists." Ryo shared. The rest of them started shifting uncomfortably, though Barkos less so. He was too heated at the moment for that. Ryo got to his feet and slowly walked past them towards the door to the 'library'.

"Hey, where are you going?" Barkos demanded. Ryo didn't look back.

"I need to get out of here. Come on, let's head towards the city center." Ryo called back. The others glanced between each other before following him out. As they passed the statues outside, Ryo stopped to look up at the statues before he went to examine the large pedestals they were stood on before he muttered something under his breath. Barkos peered over the Ryo's shoulder to look at what Ryo was looking at.

"What's the inscription say?" Barkos asked. Ryo looked up at the statue.

"It says _Oria the Stalwart._ She was a legend among our people. Story goes that she defeated a stone giant that had been menacing her home after fighting it for a straight week." Ryo explained. Several pairs of jaws dropped.

"_A week?! _You gotta be shitting me… _A WEEK?!" _Garren exclaimed. Ryo shrugged.

"It's just a story. It was probably embellished, but I wouldn't be surprised if she fought for a couple of days." Ryo replied before he walked off, a melancholy look in his eyes.

"I wonder what this place would have looked like if we'd never left..." He murmured before he started walking down the steps. Veris, Garren and Barkos followed along behind him as he walked through the dusty streets, occasionally kicking at loose stones. Eventually, Ryo stopped in front of another large structure, though this one was open-air.

"This was a sparring hall." Ryo muttered before he went inside and poking around. When he got to the middle, he bent down and wiped away the dirt and pebbles to reveal a pattern of six symbols carved into the ground, arranged hexagonally. In the center of them was another symbol. This one matched with one of the symbols that formed the hexagon.

"That says 'earth'." Barkos commented as he looked at the symbol.

"You've been studying." Ryo noted before he made his way over to the seats along the side.

"So… Humans attacked a _tsubasa _settlement and killed everyone they could fine, but a couple of them escaped and spread the word. What happened after that?" Garren asked, though it was clear that he wasn't looking forward to the answer. Ryo took a deep breath before he resumed his story.

"It was chaos after that. Many were calling for the heads of the attackers, others were grieving, some wanted to approach the human kingdoms for justice, others just wanted war. Then word came out that the humans were massing their armies and that's when it all started. More and more of my people were convinced that the attack was an opening salvo to throw us off and give humanity the psychological advantage. Our forces rallied and the war began. There aren't many left who fought in it, but the words that always float around it are 'bloody', 'messy' and 'terrible'. Eventually, my people decided that rather than just fight over the world, they'd just leave it to the humans and make their own." Ryo said before he was interrupted.

"Okay, wait. Hold on a second." Barkos interrupted while holding his hands up and bowing his head a bit.

"So, you're telling us that the _tsubasa no aru_ decided to end the fighting by just _making their own world_." Barkos asked.

"That is what I said." Ryo replied. Barkos started laughing a bit.

"Well, at least you keep your bullshit creative!" He replied, only to realize that Ryo was looking at him with a dead serious face. Barkos own face dropped.

"You're kidding." He mumbled. At any other time, Ryo would have loved to find a way to capture the image of Barkos' face like that forever. However, he still had a story to tell.

"To understand this next part, you need to understand how my people's magic works. Each of us, us meaning a _tsubasa no aru_, are born with a connection to one of the six elemental springs. These six springs are infinite sources of raw magical energy, those being light, fire, air, earth, water and darkness. The first and last are especially important. Among those six base forms, light and darkness are base or pure powers. The terminology is largely interchangeable. It means that you get the other four by combining light and darkness. There's numerous permutations and subcategories after that, but it all comes back to those six, and then those two." Ryo explained.

"I've never heard about those springs before. Not in any of the reading I did from queen Arryn. Barkos, did you find anything like that in your reading?" Veris asked Barkos, who shook his head before eying Ryo suspiciously.

"I found some allusions to a so-called 'moon spring' where one could gain knowledge by drinking the water, but nothing directly pertaining to elemental magic." He replied. Ryo sighed.

"You likely won't find any record of it anymore. When the plan arose to create this new world for ourselves, there was an obvious problem of not having enough power to do the job. So, we used our power to pull the springs right out of the earth. Our elders then drew on the nigh endless power of the springs to create the grandest city we've ever constructed, atop an island that would forever grow, thanks to the power of the springs. We then sealed ourselves away from the World, never to return." Ryo concluded.

"But then, why are you here? _How _are you here?" Veris asked. Ryo looked away in shame.

"Because this is the series of events I was always told growing up. All of us were, with a few bits and pieces confirmed when I arrived here. But it's not the whole story, and not all of what I told you was truthful. I was lied to as well, and…" Ryo explained, but couldn't bring himself to finish.

"You started discovering those lies, and the torment of it is what was messing with your powers." Veris concluded.

"Yeah, that's about what happened. My people have a tradition wherein we can earn special passage through an annual tournament to study in a place called The Sanctum. It contains all the collected knowledge of my people, from magic techniques, advanced martial skills, history, almost anything you can think of. I won my passage and started focusing on combat and history primarily." Ryo explained.

"Okay, does this have any bearing on the explanation, or are you just playing for time?" Barkos asked. Ryo glared at him.

"Do you want an explanation or not." Ryo shot back with more viciousness than he'd intended. With a remorseful look, he continued.

"I'm… kind of an oddity among my people. It was already uncommon for us to be born with a connection to one of the pure springs before we left the World, but since then it had only become rarer. I was curious about this and started doing my research, going through whatever records I could find regarding birth rates for connections to the light or dark elements, and I learned that it only seems that way in a bubble. As it turns out, birth rates for our people have been in steady decline ever since we left the World. In a way, I'm lucky to even exist, let alone have a connection to the dark element." Ryo continued. He expected another interruption, but Barkos held his tongue this time.

"Anyway, I was up late doing some research when I noticed a group of about three or four people walking past the archives. Normally I wouldn't have cared, but I felt something was… off about them. I went to investigate, and I found them all wearing identical robes, different only by color scheme and the pattern inlaid into the back, that being a rune that corresponded to the element that the robe color was associated with. I got concerned, so I decided to head back to my room and never bring it up again. However, I couldn't help but worry something was really wrong, so I decided to stake out the archives again and tail the next group I saw." Ryo continued before standing up. He was too agitated to sit still.

"This is sounding suspiciously like a cult." Veris muttered as Ryo walked past, leaving the sparring hall and heading towards the city center with the group in tow.

"You're dead on. I eventually followed a group to a secret underground passage where I found a room with _hundreds_ of people in robes. I couldn't see their faces, but I could recognize a few voices from around the Sanctum. They were all people who had won their way in as well. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I still knew it wasn't good, so I waited it out until I finally learned what was going on." Ryo continued, his face going a bit pale as he continued to recall.

"They wanted to break down the barrier between our worlds and invade. They wanted revenge; to stamp out humans and raise their civilization to the ground. We'd been taught ever since we were young that we had made the choice to leave the World to humanity and make our own so that there couldn't _be _anymore fighting and now I was hiding amongst a group of my people who intended to go against _all of that _for a blood bath." Ryo muttered, the horror and disgust as he recalled the event. Ryo's face become more and more discontented and even frustrated as he kept marching, eventually reaching the city center. He was now standing at the edge of the large crater, though looking at it more closely, they realized it looked more like something had been ripped out of the ground, rather than something had struck it.

"Was this where one of those Springs you mentioned was?" Garren asked as he peered into it.

"Yeah. Almost certainly the Earth Spring, given the prominence of it the Earth rune in this city, as well as its location under a mountain." Ryo agreed before finding somewhere else to sit down.

"So, you discovered this cult…What happened next?" Veris asked.

"So…What happened next?" Veris asked. Ryo frowned.

"I didn't know who to trust. Cult, extremists, whatever you want to call them, they were led by six individuals, one for each element. They were all also older and stronger than the students, so that could only leave the masters of the Sanctum or higher. I didn't want to go before the council, as so far, I only had what they _wanted _to do and no actual idea of how they'd do it. Plus, I couldn't take the risk of words reaching the wrong ears. That could've spelled the end of me. Eventually, I managed to get lucky and caught the meeting where they revealed their plan. They intended to forge a Light Shard and a Dark Shard and use them both as their means of returning to the World and destroying humanity once and for all." Ryo continued, his face going a bit pale as he continued to recall. His steps seemed to get a little bit shakier as he went, but he didn't lose his footing or trip at all. And throughout it all, he kept talking.

"How do shards help them do that?" Garren asked.

"The Shards are pure, crystalized light and darkness respectively. Since literally everything is derived from light and darkness, you can imagine what sort of power you can wield with two pure concentrations of those powers. You could make almost anything... Or destroy. I managed to sneak into a meeting where the leaders were showing off the Dark Shard to their followers and I made a retrospectively dumb decision to steal it. I detonated a cluster of dark energy as a distraction, swiped the crystal and made a run for it. Unfortunately, they were on me before I could figure out a way to get rid of the Shard. They trapped me in a courtyard and would likely have killed me if the crystal hadn't gone haywire, likely due to my power being darkness and that naturally gave me a certain attunement to the crystal. Somehow I managed to break through the barrier between our worlds, seemingly at the cost of my powers and the crystal. It wasn't there when I came to. I assume it was either spent getting here, or someone happened across it and made off with it. I'm hoping it's the former." Ryo explained.

"Holy… No wonder you were so screwed up before." Garren breathed.

"_were? _Let's face it, I still am. I've gotten somewhat better, but the fact that I still can't summon my wings, let alone my weapon shows that I'm still not all the way there yet. I'm worried I never will be at this point. Certainly, doesn't help that I now know that I'm the descendant of cravens." Ryo muttered bitterly.

"Wait, back up. What's that part about?" Barkos asked curiously. It seemed the long story had given him time to simmer down.

"This part is about all _this" _Ryo grumbled gesturing to the ruins.

"It's about those red monsters we keep running into, and probably the blue ones too. It's the _real_ reason why my people made their world and took the springs with them." Ryo continued, his voice thick with anger and shame.

"My people didn't leave so that to stop the fighting. They left because they were running from something. Something that threatened to end both the _tsubasa no aru_ and humanity."

* * *

**Now THAT is what I call an opening chapter!**

**Creativity: A bit heavy on the lore, but I think it's still pretty good.**

**Author: Maybe a little heavy, but I think people will like it. Besides, sections of it are stuff we've given in flashbacks, but now with context. **

**Creativity: Plus the villain re-reveal…**

**Author: Oh yeah, that was fun…**

**So yeah, we've had a remixed version of the Dread King's entrance from the last chapter, we've got Ryo **_**finally **_**coming clean after twenty chapters and we get a **_**tiny**_** bit of insight into the world he left behind. **

**And on top of that, I'm getting ideas for another miniseries that will take quite a bit of waiting to get to, but will be awesome I think. **

**Creativity: Focus. We've already got one miniseries to handle.**

**Author: Yeah, yeah. **

**Well, I think that's it from us! Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you on Saturday!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello everyone! And welcome to chapter 22 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! It's January sixth as we're writing this and given how quickly we completed chapter 21 of Before: KH, I'm raring to crank out another!**

**Creativity: Plus, once we're done on this, we can get some work done on our other stuff. The rule of weekly sets continues.**

**Author: That's right! So, before we begin, let's answer some reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: Yeah, I might have overdid it with Barkos' aggression prior and during the exposition, but you gotta keep in mind just what's been happening with the whole group. Ryo's lies and refusal to divulge information has nearly gotten them killed multiple times, and now he's revealed that he's of a species that was fighting against Barkos' in a particularly vicious and bloody war. So, yeah, he's _very _on edge. Also, yeah, I probably could have broken up the exposition a bit more. Might do that in post. Thanks for the critique!**

**And that's the reviews answered! So, last time, we left on a bit of a cliffhanger, with Ryo just about to reveal the **_**true **_**reason why the **_**tsubasa no aru**_** vanished. This chapter, we're shifting perspectives and going back to Sora's perspective!**

**Creativity: Ohhhh, we're gonna get letters for this one…**

**Author: I know, I know, you all are probably mad at me for making you wait until Saturday in the expectation of a conclusion to where things were going for Ryo there, but I feel it'd be better to break that up and have a Sora chapter in between all of that. **

**Despite tweaking and revision with the help of one CeleneTheAngel (also the most consistent reviewer of this story, many thanks for all of your feedback), there's still quite a bit of info being dumped in it and having two chapters of Ryo coming clean back to back didn't feel very interesting to me. Now, the upcoming chapter isn't going to be primarily lore and exposition like the last one was, but it's still gonna have some and I wanted to break it up more thoroughly, and what's more thorough than a whole chapter? Right?**

**Creativity: Seems like a bit of a sledgehammer move.**

**Author: It's a sledgehammer situation.**

**Well, I suppose it's time to start the chapter, but before we do, there's one other thing we need to take care of. Creativity, take it away!**

**Creativity: Thanks, boss! So, our fic recommendation of the chapter! This week's recommendation is ****Keyblade Princess: Cosmos's Crusaders**** by ****YamiChaos27. We're intrigued by this one and I definitely see lots of potential in it. It follows a new Princess of Heart on a journey to combat the forces of Discord. We believe this is in reference to the Dissidia series, but we honestly don't know since we don't play or really watch Dissidia. We weren't exactly grabbed by it like we were other stories, but we're still interested to see where it's going and hope you will too. So, go give it a look! **

**Author: Thank you, Creativity. Now then, all that's left is the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**And now, we're ready to begin. Allow us to proudly present chapter 22 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"So, how much do you know about the outside worlds?"

"Not much, at least in regard to their current states."

Sora resisted the urge to groan as he and Archive kept on their trek to the next obelisk. He was rapidly running out of things to talk to Archive about, and the bandaged bodyguard certainly wasn't helping with those short answers. If this kept up, Sora would have to dip into his final bag of tricks; jokes. Unfortunately, Sora had been informed numerous times that while he was gifted at physical comedy like pulling faces, his actual joke-telling ability was… Well, the worst he'd heard was from Selphie, who claimed his jokes made her eyeballs pull into her skull never to return, due to the sheer cringe factor, so he wasn't that eager to employ them just yet. Besides, Sora had the feeling that what sense of humor Archive did have was very narrow and that his and Sora's sense of humor did not overlap.

So, that left the herculean task of trying desperately to drag _something_ resembling a conversation out of Archive; a task that had become even more difficult since their encounter with that previous monster: the Torrasque as Archive had called it.

"How do you know about the worlds, anyway? You mentioned Traverse Town by name, but you said that you can't leave this place." Sora decided to ask, thinking it to be a harmless enough question.

"I may be restricted to this place, but I'm still able to accumulate knowledge from many others. The worlds are all connected in many ways, as you know all too well, and through those connections and my own connection to this world, I can glean events, names, places and people. It's how I knew your name and the names of your allies and friends, as well as the many trials you have faced and overcome." Archive explained. Sora was confused.

"Wait, do you…like… see and hear this stuff, or is more like someone's telling you?" Sora inquired. Archive grew silent for a moment.

"In all honesty, I haven't really thought about it too much. It's just something that comes naturally to me and has ever since I came into existence." Archive answered.

"If you don't mind me asking, where _did _you come from?" Sora asked hesitantly. Archive hesitated himself as the two of them continued forward before Archive spoke up again.

"Unfortunately, the circumstances of my birth were… tragic. Perhaps I will share it with you before the end of your task, but not now." Archive replied. Sora felt a frown creeping across his face. He kind of regretted asking Archive that. He'd gotten too comfortable with asking Archive questions and now he'd poked around somewhere he shouldn't have. However, he didn't want conversation to die on that miserable note, so he dug around for something else to talk about.

"So… umm… You mentioned that you gave yourself the name Archive. Why'd you choose to name yourself after an even more boring version of a library?" Sora asked, trying to find something to joke about to lighten things up, as well as keep Archive talking.

"It seemed appropriate. I'm one of perhaps a dozen at most who remember a time before a world rent asunder by the keyblade war, even before the first keyblade was fashioned in the image of the one true key. I remember it all, down to the last detail, and my connection to this world, and through it the worlds beyond, allows me to learn and remember more and more. In a very real sense, I am a living record of a time long since lost. Not unlike a certain friend of King Mickey as a matter of fact." Archive explained, seemingly glad to have something else to talk about.

"Wait, who's this friend of the King's that you mentioned? Was it Ansem the Wise?" Sora asked. Archive shook his head.

"It is not the ruler of Radiant Garden. I'd tell you more, but I get the distinct feeling that you'll be learning more of the friend in question when you return from your task." Archive answered before they turned a corner and saw a steep cliff up ahead, and their destination situated at the top, based on the column of purple light climbing into the sky.

"Alright, so now I gotta scale a cliff. This should be easy enough." Sora commented before he jogged up to the cliff and hopped lightly from foot to foot as Archive approached.

"I'd stay on guard if I were you. Despite their entrances being on the… theatrical side, the enemy could strike at any moment. You don't want to be caught off-guard." Archive lectured before he began teleporting from ledge to ledge, all the way up the cliff.

"Show off…" Sora muttered before he began to sprint up the side of the cliff, occasionally using the same ledges that Archive teleported to for a little boost until he reached the top.

"You know, I bet you didn't even need to make me climb that cliff. I bet you made me do it for fun." Sora muttered as he caught his breath from the exertion. He wasn't sure how, but Sora could just tell that there was a small smile behind the bandages that obscured Archive's face, barely holding back the tiny chuckles at Sora's expense.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Archive replied matter-of-factly before they continued onward. They were only a few minutes away from the next obelisk by now. As they kept walking, Sora decided to take Archive's lecture to heart, if only for a moment and began looking for signs that the strange yellow monsters were preparing to attack. Seeing no immediate signs, Sora's mind began to wander as he thought about the 'enemy' as Archive referred to them. With the few encounters Sora had under his belt with them, he knew surprisingly little. That wasn't necessarily out of step with his experiences during his previous journeys, but he didn't have a walking encyclopedia at the time. Well, he supposed he had an encyclopedia in progress with Jiminy, but Archive was something of a different creature from the chronicler cricket and part-time conscience, and not just because of their differing fashion choices.

"Say, you think you can tell me more about those pain creature… things? I mean, do they even have a name? I can't help but feel you've been holding out on me regarding information about them." Sora asked. Archive let out an echoing huff, though it wasn't one of exasperation. Sora's brief fear that he might have bugged Archive too much for one day turned out to be unfounded though, at least for now. Instead, Archive just took a few moments to stand there before he turned to face Sora.

"Perhaps I have been… less than accommodating with the obstruction we face. I simply dislike discussing or even giving thought to those… _beasts…_ They are the source of far too much suffering, past and present and though I don't give too much credence to the concept of 'karma', I have found it bodes ill to discuss them too much, or at least appears to." Archive replied before he began walking again.

"Hey, if you don't wanna talk about it, we don't have to. I made it pretty far against the Heartless without knowing too much about them." Sora responded, but Archive shook his head.

"No. I've avoided this for too long. However, there are somethings I cannot tell you just yet. Not out of fear or distaste, but simply because they are answers you will only truly understand at the end of this journey. I trust you understand?" Archive asked. Sora nodded, frowning a bit. Archive had been slipping more and more back into his… well, 'default' for lack of a better word. The language, both vocal and bodily were reverting back to the way Archive was when Sora first encountered him. It was almost a bit jarring.

"Okay… Well, let's start with a name then. Do these things even have a name?" Sora asked.

"Not formally, no. They're discovery was followed shortly by them vanishing under mysterious circumstances, with no specimens left for study. Their brief reign of terror earned them a few names, though two took precedence and are practically interchangeable at this point. I can imagine no written record exists of them still." Archive began explaining before Sora interjected.

"Wait, I thought you knew all this stuff? How can you not know if there's any books or something about these things lying around?" Sora asked.

"I glean the events; the motions of the worlds, the people, the comings and goings, the _life_ as it were. I can't simple divine the existence of a single book or a record of something." Archive explained, a hint of irritation at being interrupted.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. So, you were saying about the name of these things?" Sora asked. Archive nodded.

"Right. For obvious reasons, they were referred to as the Cruciatus, though the more common name that emerged for them was the Agony, though that was more so a translation than it was a proper name. Still, of the two, it was the more widely circulated in oral tradition, with the names being used in equal part for recorded history. You already know more or less the common ability all of the Cruciatus share; their ability to inflict great suffering upon any who make contact with them." Archive continued as Sora felt a shudder go up his back when he remember the horrible pain he'd felt when the Torrasque had struck him.

"Yeah, no kidding. I didn't think that it was possible to hurt that much. No wonder people didn't wanna remember them." Sora muttered to himself as they continued towards the obelisk. The road was peppered with large stone spires that jutted out of the ground. Nothing particularly obstructive. It was almost more like a forest of stone, with the smallest spires being around eight feet tall. As Sora went along, he could see what initially looked like cracks in the crooked spires. However, when he got closer to them, he realized that the cracks were actually small carvings. He walked over to one and examined it. It was written in that same language as the carvings on the obelisks, but it wasn't nearly as clean. Also, the spacing was a bit strange. Peering closer at them, he recognized the runes to be forming names. All of them were.

Sora walked over to another spire and sure enough, there were more names. Another spire, more names.

"Hey, what's with all the names carved onto these spires? They're everywhere." Sora asked Archive, who's posture had noticeably changed since entering this field of spires. It was obvious that he really didn't want to be here.

"The Shades refer to the place as the Field of the Fallen. Each of those names belong to individuals who fell in battle before the World was split into many." Archive explained in a tired tone. Sora looked around at all the spires, looking at all of the names that were carved into the stone spires.

"Wait, were these all keyblade wielders from the Keyblade War?!" Sora exclaimed as he looked around at the spires, now incredibly unsettled. Even if they hadn't died here (so far as he knew), it still felt like he was walking through a mass grave.

"Not all of them, but plenty of them were. This is perhaps one of the last ledgers of the dead for all those who perished in that meaningless war." Archive muttered, his strange voice nonetheless communicating his frustration over that battle.

"All these names… I know the Keyblade War was about Kingdom Hearts and the X-Blade, but what drove them to fight this much over it?" Sora asked. Archive scoffed as he began striding towards the exit from the Field of the Fallen.

"Why do people fight war out of anything? One or more sides desired power and had no qualms in stripping any opposition of its life." Archive muttered scornfully as he made to leave.

"Okay, touchy subject. Can't say I'm surprised by that." Sora muttered to himself as he jogged to keep up with Archive, who seemed to be simmering in quiet anger. Sora opted to keep quiet for now and let Archive get his fuming out of his system. Besides, he had a lot to think about.

He'd at least gotten some good information from Archive before they got to the Field. He'd gotten an actual collective name for the pain monsters they were fighting, he'd learned more about this strange world, as well as Archive's strange connection to it. He just wished he had Jiminy around to record it all. Sora knew he wasn't going to be able to remember all of this and, on top of it all, there was going to be a lot more to learn here.

"Something's wrong."

Sora looked up at Archive's word and looked to the dark entity, who was now on edge.

"I don't see anything. You sure?" Sora asked, though he still summoned Kingdom Key as a precaution.

"Certain. I'm not sure what, but something is very wro… GET BACK!" Archive suddenly shouted before he grabbed Sora by the back of his hood and shot backwards, dragging Sora along with him. Sora for his part, let out a choking noise before they stopped moving and Archive let go of his hood before placing himself between Sora and whatever he'd dragged Sora away from.

"Jeez, a little more warning next time? Also, what's going… on… oh crap…" Sora muttered as he realized what Archive had been so worried about. Right where they'd been standing was a black and purple portal with a suspiciously familiar black limb emerging from it. However, there was a few things different about it. For one, there were black stone spikes emerging from the limb with glowing yellow cracks on them. Additionally, there was dark yellow electricity crackling out of the portal. Said portal began expanding and another limb erupted from the void before they dug into the ground and began to pull whatever they were attached to out of the portal. From it emerged a foe that was very familiar to Sora. It was one of the higher echelon of the Pureblood Heartless: a Darkside. However, there was something wrong with it. It was twitchier than normal Darkside Heartless, and its body was covered in stone spikes that called to mind the Cruciatus. Even its skin featured glowing dark yellow cracks, reminiscent of blood vessels. However, the biggest change was the heart-shaped void in its chest was now occupied by a spherical cracked stone that was constantly pumping dark yellow energy into the Darkside.

"This is wrong… this is all wrong…" Archive muttered, an audible shake of fear in his voice.

"Uh, Archive? What do we do?" Sora asked as he summoned Kingdom Key and took up his standard battle stance. Archive seemed to snap out of his fear-induced stupor and began channeling Dark energy into his limbs.

"We need to destroy it." Archive resolved. Sora took on a determined scowl.

"I thought you'd never ask." Sora replied before the two of them lunged at the Darkside. Their foe reared back its fist, dark yellow energy surrounding its arm as it threw the punch. The two forces collided, and the battle against the Cruciatus Darkside began.

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it for today! **

**Creativity: People are going to be so irritated that we opted for a double cliffhanger on the opening chapters.**

**Author: Well, given the frequency of updates I think they'll be okay.**

**So yeah, we're got a new enemy and it's got Archive genuinely freaked out. But how did this abomination come into being? **

**Creativity: Do we even know?**

**Author: Yes, as a matter of fact. We may fly by the seat of our pants with a few of these stories, but we usually have an idea of when and how things should play out in these stories.**

**Well, not much else to do here, so I'm gonna call it for now. Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you on Tuesday!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Good day to you all, and welcome to chapter 23 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! It's the first of February 1****st**** as I'm writing this, so it's been a while since I sat down to write for Before: KH, but I've not been idle. I completed the twenty sixth chapter for Limit Breaker and also completed the fifth chapter for Star Wars: Twilight Blade, which is currently on track to do similar to Before: KH in terms of people interested.**

**Creativity: You sound a bit bitter.**

**Author: I'm honestly not. I mean, it's a little bit of a downer, but I kinda figured that was gonna happen. Both are crowded real estate right now, with tons of variety, so you gotta be thankful for every person who stops in to take a look.**

**So, before we go any further, let's take a look at the reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: Yeah, I figured an 'interlude' as you put it would be a good way to make sure people aren't too overwhelmed with exposition. Plus, I just like writing for Archive. As for what Sora does and doesn't know, I've kind of backed away from Sora ruminating on what he learns from the Obelisks when he unlocks them since it's not super relevant right now and it's more interesting to write for him interacting with Archive. I actually was looking up translations for pain and its synonyms and Cruciatus (same spelling as Harry Potter) was one of the ones that came up. I think it was Latin, but I can't remember. The more you know and all that. As for the Darkside, I've got that fight all written out already, but I might go back and give it an edit or two to extend it and make it more interesting. Not that it wasn't good already, but that's not to say it wouldn't enjoy a few touch-ups. And yes, Archive is scared of it, though not necessarily for the reasons you think. As for the monsters, ****I haven't had anyone get hit by them so far since I'm playing up the non-Sora characters (sans Ryo) as much more squishy. Though I did mention during the Radiant Garden Boss that Garren's brief possession also made him feel REALLY angry throughout the experience. ****Also recall when Sora got hit during chapter 19 and Archive had to use his Purge spell to dispel the effects of the boss's strike. ****It was always my intention to have the three big bads have those powers**

**And that's all the reviews! Now then, last time we probably made people pretty angry by jumping from one cliff hanger to another, but please put down the pitch forks and torches, as we're going to be resolving those cliff hangers over the next two chapters! So (dodges pitchfork) PUT EM DOWN!**

**Creativity: Please remove this person from the audience, please!**

**Author: Well then, I hope everyone likes this chapter! Alright, so be… NO! PUT DOWN THAT TORCH**

**Sorry about that. So, here's the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**And with that out of the way, allow us to proudly present chapter 23 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

_"So, you guys feeling ready for the tournament next week?" Phoenix asked. Tempest was the first to respond._

_"Oh yeah! Bring 'em on! I'll give 'em a taste of raw air power!" He announced as he pointed dramatically into the distance. Lieth rolled her eyes._

_"Oh yes, you'll blow everyone out of their seats... Did I just pun?" Lieth asked in a surprised and annoyed tone. Shiori giggled a little._

_"You seem a little thunderstruck by that." Shiori commented. Lieth groaned._

_"Oh no, don't start, please. The moment someone starts than everyone just piles on." Lieth moaned in resigned misery. Ryo started smiling._

_"Well it's so easy to. I mean seriously, it's a breeze!" Ryo stated with a wide smile. Lieth let her face fall into her hand._

_"What have I done?" She mumbled. Phoenix started grinning._

_"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure it'll blow over pretty quickly." Phoenix cracked with a shit-eating grin. Lieth's head shot up, a very angry expression on her face._

_"One more wind pun and I swear on Quara's grave, I will bring a downpour down on everyone!" Lieth roared. Terrek just shook his head. _

_"No need to be so stormy over a few puns."_

_Leith's mouth dropped open as she looked at Terrek's face. It was stone. Not so much as a twitch in his lips._

"… No words... _There exists no words to describe how enraged I am right now…" Lieth muttered as everyone broke out laughing._

* * *

There was silence throughout the ancient city. Heavy silence.

It had been only a few minutes since Ryo had revealed the truth about why his people had fled the World, but it felt like ages. Ryo had just been looking at the long abandoned stone walkway with a look of shame on his face. Garren and Veris were both in varying states of shellshock, while Barkos was torn between his drive to be angry with Ryo to his own shock and disbelief at the amount of information that Ryo was getting off his chest.

"So, let me get this straight." Barkos began, holding up his hands and bowing his head a little.

"If I've got everything right, humans attacked your people first and you don't know why. War broke out after that and it was a nightmare of blood and death on both sides, then your people hit on the idea to just make their own world to live in instead of continuing to wage war." Barkos started, pausing to allow anyone to get their own word in. When they didn't, he continued.

"However, they didn't leave just because they were sick of fighting, but because there was something _else _going on that was an even bigger threat to both sides, and your people decided it was better to cut their losses and make a break for it. That about sum it up so far?" Barkos finished. Ryo just nodded, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"That's the timeline of events, yes. And here we are, with the consequences still nipping at our heels." Ryo muttered, frustration and bitterness laced throughout his voice.

"Okay, you're going to have to back up a little bit. Do you know what that threat was? What am I saying, of course you know. You were just looking it up." Barkos muttered. Ryo's head just dipped lower.

"When I first showed up here, I had no clue what was going on. I was dealing with my power loss and the disappearance of the Dark Shard. I was weirded out by the monsters the first time we ran into them, but I'd never heard of anything like them, so I didn't pay them more thought." Ryo began, rising to his feet and walking past them, back down the road they'd just come from.

"It wasn't until we got to Radiant Garden that I started getting suspicious. I was wandering the castle and I wound up in the king's collection of my people's relics. Out of sheer curiosity I decided to examine one of the tablets. Turns out that it was a Final Lament." Ryo continued. Veris cocked her head.

"A Final Lament? What's that?" She asked.

"I'm not clear on the exact science behind it, but essentially my people can bind the events preceding our death to an object, provided our emotions were running high enough prior to death. Near as we can tell, it's completely involuntary. However, this one was different from all the cases I'd heard of. This one was a Final Lament for dozens, possibly hundreds of my people. It…" Ryo began explaining before he paused as he recalled the event, shuddering.

"That bad?" Garren asked in a concerned voice.

"It was a massacre. Humans and _tsubasa no aru _both fighting against the most powerful of the red monsters. They were losing badly. I'm not sure how long the Lament lasted, but I managed to break free of it somehow. And shortly after that…" Ryo continued, but Barkos was ahead of him.

"The town was attacked again by the red monsters. So, what? Did your vision somehow get their attention?" Barkos asked. There were accusatory notes in his voice, but Ryo paid them no mind.

"No. I think the Lament was responding to them. Remember, the town had already been attacked before I encountered the Lament. We stopped one when we arrived." Ryo reminded Barkos before he continued.

"It was after that when I started to get worried, especially with the carvings the Lament was attached to providing a few clues. The 'Wrath' sigil that was written on that summoning gate didn't help either. Then we got to Atlantis…" Ryo continued, his voice taking on a hard edge when he brought up Atlantis.

"I'm not sure how, but the King of Atlantis knew what I was the moment he laid eyes on me. He gave me a key to an old _tsubasa no aru_ fortress that apparently had been buried with Atlantis for quite some time and told me I'd find something inside." Ryo explained before his face fell once more with shame. The others' faces hardened, knowing where Ryo was going next. Ryo stopped at a stone hut that had long since fallen to ruin, taking a seat on the crumbled remains of the wall.

"I was in a bad way about this whole thing. I think I already knew the truth at that point, or at least the broad strokes of it, but I wanted to see answers with my own eyes. Maybe I wanted to see proof that I was wrong, maybe I just needed to see it with my own eyes, I don't know anymore. All that matters is that I went and… you know the rest." Ryo finished.

"And then you came here, used that library thing and now you got your answers." Veris concluded. Ryo nodded. Barkos frowned.

"Well, that's great and all, but what _are those answers? _You've walked us through your journey of enlightenment, but you haven't told us what answers you found." Barkos argued. Ryo sighed and nodded.

"I guess I'm still processing. So, the answers I found pertain to not just to the red monsters, but the blue ones that the Dread King's servants were using too, and a third faction. It's…" Ryo started before stopping again to take a moment to gather himself.

"While we were assembling for war, everyone was still reeling from the first attack. The rage, the pain and the sorrow were all anyone could think about and it was overwhelming us. One of our high council struck on the idea to use that well of emotion to our benefit." Ryo continued, spitting out the words like a foul taste on his tongue. The others felt their guts tying themselves in knots as they started to piece together what Ryo was saying.

"So, the council created two Shards, one of light and one of darkness. And then, they used them to give form to those thoughts and feelings that festered in my people. Three entities were created, designated as Wrath, Anguish and Agony: the distilled essence of those feelings that humanity had brought out in us through this war." Ryo spat out. Veris opened her mouth to speak, but Ryo wasn't done. He'd been building to a rant and now it was in full swing.

"They unleashed those _things _on humanity, but they underestimated the power and brutality of their creations. With each human legion that was torn asunder by them, my people began to fear these monsters and began questioning whether it had been right to weaponize their emotions this way. What was worse was that they were growing stronger with each human they killed and my people began to get nervous. What if they grew beyond their control? Did we have any control to begin with? Should we try to stop them?" Ryo continued, his voice having raised not insignificantly. He was waving his arms about haphazardly as he ranted and Veris wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she saw small black wisps rising from Ryo's shoulders.

"Well, Wrath, Anguish and Agony didn't take kindly to the idea of their creators getting cold feet, or that they might be destroyed because of it. They began to indiscriminantly lay waste to humans and _tsubasa no aru _alike. If you thought the war was a blood bath, the massacre that followed was a bloody lake." Ryo snarled as he continued his march.

"Everyone tried fighting back, obviously. Hell, in some small way, it actually put an end to the war, if only temporarily. And then, my people decided to _cut and run_." Ryo spat. Now everyone else could definitely see the dark wisps rising from his body, like the smoke of embers just waiting to burst into flame once more.

"They ripped the Springs from the land and made their perfect world, shielded from the horrors they unleashed upon the world and evacuated as many as they could before Wrath took notice. Then they just shut the doors forever. Didn't even risk Wrath getting remotely close before they severed ties and left humanity and a sizable chunk of my people behind to fend for themselves against three monstrosities of our making!" Ryo continued to rant, his voice now practically a shout. Veris, Garren and Barkos would have probably been in various states of shock, horror and possibly rage if they weren't more concerned about Ryo and the purple energy that had joined the black wisps rising from his body.

"But, we're all still here, right? So they must have been stopped, right?" Veris pointed out, trying to get Ryo to calm down a little. Ryo just grumbled incoherently as he kept marching.

"The primary bodies might have been destroyed, but Wrath and Anguish certainly aren't gone. Only Agony was recorded as having been vanquished before my people chose the mark of a damn craven. I don't know what happened to Wrath and Anguish immediately following the _retreat, _but they obviously weren't taken care of permanently. Who do you think we've been running into on the road all this time?" Ryo growled as he slammed his hand against an old stone wall.

"Wait a minute, you said both Wrath and Anguish were still floating around out there. I get the connection to Wrath, since you pointed out that the sigil on the front of that summoning gate and those red monsters, but I don't get the connection to Anguish. Where has _it_ been?" Garren asked. Barkos was quick to reply.

"Remember, in Atlantis? Ryo pointed out that the one sigil, Anguish, kept getting repeated on the walls." Barkos pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was carved before Anguish was defeated." Garren countered.

"Um, guys? I think Ryo's talking about the blue monsters." Veris pointed out, which had both Garren and Barkos feeling a little embarrassed for having let that detail slip. However, the implications quickly caught up with them

"Wait, does this mean that Anguish is actually the Dread King?" Barkos questioned. Ryo shook his head.

"I haven't got a clue, but it's beyond doubt that Anguish is connected to the Dread King somehow. What I'm more concerned about is why an entity that nearly brought both humanity and my people to extinction would suddenly be relying on one of them. What does Anguish get out of this?" Ryo answered as he stopped walking and just started glaring at the ground. The energy had dissipated briefly while they discussed Anguish, but it was coming back as Ryo just glared at the ground. His fists were clenched at his side, shaking in his building fury.

The dark energy his body was throwing off was building in intensity before he suddenly stormed off down a back alley. Veris, Garren and Barkos were hesitant to follow, but they eventually did, finding Ryo had stalked his way down towards what looked like some sort of district square. There was a broken, crumbling fountain in the middle, long since dried up and lined with dust. He kept walking, heading past one of the streets before he eventually slowed down, looking to pick a direction to go in.

"Ryo, are you… okay?" Veris hesitantly asked. Ryo stopped. His body went rigid as he glared into the distance.

"Well, as we just finished discussing, I've had it confirmed to me in cold hard records by _my people _that we decided weaponizing our negative emotions was a great idea, and when it backfired, we didn't even bother to stick around and try to solve the problem. We ran like _cowards _and left humanity and plenty of our own as sacrifices to keep the horrors we unleashed from following us, and the horrors have survived to this very day and are apparently after us, so _no, _I am definitely _not okay."_ Ryo snarled back viciously. Everyone flinched as they saw Ryo's dark aura flare before went to walk away again. This time though, Garren stepped up.

"So, that wasn't you! You didn't know about any of this and you weren't responsible for any of it!" Garren argued back, but Ryo was not in a listening mood.

"From the very moment of my _birth, _all of my history has been a _damn. Lie._ A _lie _to me and to everyone else! We ran away from this problem and it was _erased from our history, _and those _idiots _believe that they have anything approaching the _right _to come back at all, to start a war all over again…" Ryo hissed as his aura began to froth and rage. Veris, Garren and Barkos' eyes widened before they braced themselves as Ryo let out a shout of rage, a pulse of black and purple energy erupting from his body as he did so! The trio was knocked back by Ryo's outburst and they were sent tumbling backwards. Ryo was still seething when he realized what had happened. His eyes widened as he looked down at his hands. They were shaking again, but not with rage. He went to take a step forward, but cringed away before he slowly took a few steps back, once again staring at his hands in shock and fear before he turned and ran off.

"Ryo, wait…!" Garren started to call, but Ryo was already out of sight.

"Come on, we gotta go after him!" Veris grunted as she got to her feet, hand clutching her side from being thrown.

"Guys, I'm worried about him too, but do you really think that's a good idea right now?" Barkos asked as he slowly got to his feet and began checking himself over for injuries.

"How can you say that?! He's freaking out! He needs…" Veris started before Barkos cut her off.

"I'm not saying we don't track him down, but seriously. Look at what just happened. I don't think he's exactly safe to be around right now. He clearly seems to think that. He ran off for a reason." Barkos pointed out. Veris shot Barkos a glare and marched past him, only for Garren to lightly grab her shoulder.

"He might have a point. He isn't saying to abandon Ryo. Just to give him some distance to work this out and calm down a bit. We find where he is, let him work things out, then we approach him. Alright?" Garren suggested. Veris batted his arm off and turned to glare at them properly.

"Have you guys forgotten the _last time _we decided to just let him _work things out on his own? _Because I remember the end result was us falling into a pit of undead warriors, being attacked by waves of Anguish's monsters, Ryo fighting a giant monster one on one to the _death_ and us _nearly drowning _after that, _all within the span of a few hours! _So no, I don't think I'll just be leaving well enough alone this time!" Veris half-shouted before she marched off in the direction that Ryo had ran off in. Barkos and Garren glanced between each other, unsure of what to do before they trailed after Veris.

"I guess this is a shining example of how much can go wrong in a single day." Garren muttered as they followed their furious companion.

"Well, it's technically been slowly building up over two years and several weeks at this point, if we were keeping a timeline, but yeah, it certainly does feel like things have _properly _fallen apart here." Barkos replied sullenly, staring after Veris with equal parts concern, sadness and fear.

"Honestly, I was thinking you were gonna be way more angry about all this, what with how ready you were to _shoot him _earlier." Garren commented, leading to Barkos glancing at the ground shamefully and rubbing the back of his neck.

"To be honest, I would have thought the same thing. I think the reason I'm not is because Ryo seems more enraged by all this than I could dream to be. Veris getting to the end of her rope didn't help or hurt either." Barkos guessed as they saw Veris had come to a stop and was looking around. It was obvious that Ryo had given her the slip and now she had no idea where to go next.

"Veris, I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but I don't think any of us are going to find Ryo, especially considering he probably has a way better ability to navigate these ruins, and that ignores the fact that he obviously doesn't want to be found right now." Garren stated gently, but firmly. Veris whirled around, clearly intending to let Garren have it, but couldn't find it in herself to stay angry. She deflated and stared at the ground.

"The truth was supposed to start putting things back together, not tear us further apart…" She murmured, a faint quiver in her voice. Garren frowned.

"Look, I can't begin to guess if things can be patched up after all this. Maybe all of this is too much and we really do need to part ways with Ryo after this. I don't think it'll come to that though. We just need to wait this out a little while longer and then we can start patching things up." Garren told his friend, who looked up at him as he put on his best confident face.

"Alright… Alright, we'll set up camp for now. Let's find somewhere more secluded. You're right. We have to believe that Ryo will find us when he's ready." Veris agreed. The three humans left, searching their way through the crumbling city until they reached a location that was suitable enough for camping and got themselves set up as best they could. It had been a really long day and despite how high-strung everyone had been for a good long stretch (actually, probably because of it) they were exhausted. Hopefully, things would improve the next day, if only marginally. After they'd all lost Woodfell, all of them had been all they had left.

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it for today! Well, I say that. Likely, I'll be back to touch this one up.**

**Creativity: We have been doing that an awful lot lately.**

**Author: Well, it's probably good practice. Within reason, of course.**

**So, I'm unsure of what kind of chapter we're gonna have next. I was initially thinking Sora, but I'm kinda thinking I want to do another Ryo chapter. That being said, I'm also excited to get back to Sora so that we can write that Darkside Boss fight. Well, we'll have time to consider which we want to do.**

**Well, that's it from us for now! Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Good day to you all! Welcome to chapter 24 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

**So, time for a little IRL chat about something that's got me real nervous, but also real excited. I've probably talked about this before, but I've been in a… jeez, I think it's a year and half long process of research, planning and decision making to adopt a new pet, and… well, today's the day! I've got a lovely bird named Phoenix now, who is currently getting used to his new surroundings… by standing on a piece of spray millet instead of eating it…**

**Guess he's just silly like that.**

**Creativity: Well, he's had a couple of… scremmy moments, so he's acting a little more bird-like.**

**Author: True. He is settling in pretty well. **

**But before we get into story discussion, let's answer the reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: I wouldn't go back on Barkos' reaction to Ryo, but I probably would like to have spent more time establishing it. Oh well, first draft stuff. This is actually the first time I noticed the parallels between Elsa and Ryo's reactions to their magic blow-up. Might be something I should bookmark for later. As for how the group could take down Anguish and Wrath, I've already got that sorted out. Also, one thing I'm probably gonna do in future is explore Veris' role within the group. As for further emotional torment for Ryo... Let's just say I'm one evil S.O.B.**

**And that's all of the reviews from chapter 23! Thank you all for writing in! **

**So, last time, we finally got Ryo to get **_**everything **_**off his chest, he had a heated moment and now he's loose in an abandoned city that only he has any idea of how to navigate, leaving his friends aimlessly trying to locate him. And in our other perspective, we have Sora and Archive facing down a strange Darkside Heartless, whose physical appearance has Archive in some level of distress. So, which perspective are we following today?**

**Creativity: I'll answer that! We're sticking with Ryo's sequence of events this time!**

**Author: Indeed! We figured that it was probably best to wrap up Ryo's micro-arc (though that might be too aggrandizing a term) So, we're gonna wrap that up today before we return to Sora's perspective.**

**Also, I've been doing the numbers in my brain a bit, and this season could run longer than anticipated… again…**

_**Sigh**_**…**

**Well, I guess that's just more time to finish Twilight Blade and Resurgence. Those **_**also **_**need to be completed for what's coming next.**

**Creativity: But, we're getting ahead of ourselves! For now, It's time to begin chapter 24! But first, Discord password:** **5RRcGwh**

**Author: Thank you, Creativity! And now… **_**ahem… **_**Allow us to proudly present chapter 24 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

_It was a quiet evening. The sky was dimming, and star would begin to appear within the hour. Ryo stared out into the horizon, lounging on a stone bench within a terrace. Sitting on and around the bench were five others. _

_It was peaceful. A light breeze ran past them, causing Ryo's black tunic to shuffle in the wind. He eased back in his seat as he gazed out at the sky. He wanted to remember this moment; here with his friends, enjoying the twilight. _

"_Hey, Ryo? Do you ever wonder… if maybe there's more out there?"_

_Ryo turned to look at Tempest, who was sitting on the ground with his bandaged feet outstretched in front of him. His sleeveless beige tunic rustled as he shifted to get more comfortable. Ryo considered the question._

"_Honestly, I haven't really. We got everything we need right here. Why go elsewhere?" He replied. Shiori looked over at Tempest from her own seat on the grass, lightly brushing off a few stray leaves that had landed on her white and gold coat._

"_Still feeling that 'call to adventure', huh?" She asked. Tempest grinned as he looked out into the distance._

"_Well, why would I wanna stay here all my life? There's gotta be _something _more out there, doesn't there? Don't tell me _you've _never thought about getting out of here, Shiori." Tempest asked his friend. Shiori just shrugged._

"_I mean, I've been curious, but never to the point of actually considering acting on my curiosity." Shiori replied. _

"_Besides, there's plenty to do here! Especially when we get into the Sanctum!" Phoenix declared confidently as she rose to her feet theatrically. Her red tunic and pants with gold vambraces and greaves were complimented by the twilight sky. _

"_We aren't in there yet, Phoenix. Don't assume you've won just yet." Lieth reminded Phoenix as she brushed a few stands of her dark blue hair behind her ear to keep them out of her eyes before she rested her bare feet back on the grass. Phoenix looked mildly incensed by the suggestion that they couldn't win._

"_Oh, come on! We've been training like crazy! How could we not make it?" Phoenix argued before she summoned her halberd. The red and gold weapon gleamed in the orange light._

"_With this mighty blade, I will battle my way to the top and claim my right to the knowledge of the Sanctum!" She announced dramatically, staring off into the distance. There was silence for all of about ten seconds before everyone burst into laughter, Phoenix included. _

_It was a great moment among friends…_

_It's too still here._

* * *

That was the one thought that kept flitting through Ryo's mind as he sat among the crumbling, gray stone that constituted just one of many abandoned structures within this once great city. He'd squeezed into this little corner not long after giving Veris the slip and had stuck there the whole time, cloak drawn, and one knee hugged to his chest as he looked at the ground sullenly.

He couldn't get the image out of his head. The energy _he'd_ unleashed throwing his friends away, the looks of shock and fear in their eyes as they looked at him, then the silence that followed as he ran away. He thought he might have heard someone calling after him, but it was all blurry. All he'd known was that he had to get away from them, to run from what had happened.

"Stupid…" Ryo muttered to himself as he idly flicked away a small piece of rubble. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't run from it. He couldn't run away from his own powers, no more than he could run away from his own shadow.

"Figures… Just as my powers are starting to come back, I go and have an outburst that gets people hurt. As if I was three years old and had no grasp on what I was doing…" Ryo muttered bitterly as he picked up the rock and threw it, listening to it clatter as it bounced and rolled across the long damaged cobble of the roads. The act and the sound brought _that _thought back to him again.

This city was too still.

The air had sat in place for far too long, only disturbed when Ryo and the others had opened the passageway for the first time in… well, it had probably been centuries since this place was last disturbed. After all, why come back here after the Spring had been torn away, leaving an ugly, gaping wound in the center of the city.

This place was supposed to feel _alive; _There was supposed to be dueling in the sparring halls, study and debate within whatever the equivalent of the Sanctum was within this city was. There was supposed to be laughter and friendship. There was supposed to be _flying_, the warm air constantly stirring from the beating wings of the people who lived under the mountain.

But there wasn't. Now, it was all cold, dusty, dull and dead. Left to rot by cowards who couldn't face their own failures and instead left the world to die beneath the feet of the demons they created.

And at the end of their line was him. Trapped here after discovering the latest manifestation of their folly and trying to do something about it. Stripped of his strength and condemned to be chased by the ghosts of his people's sins while his returning strength harmed what remained of the life he'd tried to build on this world.

Was this his fate? To forever suffer for the sins of his people? To drift from place to place, pursued by monsters and the Dread King until he eventually could hold out no longer?

He didn't see much else for himself after he'd lost control like that. He'd gone so long without being able to summon so much as a handful of sparks without collapsing from exertion. His powers were returning to him too fast and near as he could tell, it was only happening when he was in a state of heightened emotion or he was literally about to die. Neither were particularly good to Ryo. The former was liable to end with him getting his friends or innocent bystanders hurt or worse, and the latter was also liable to only kick in when things were exceptionally bad, and by that point, it could easily be too late, and his powers wouldn't be of any use after the fact.

"I really can't win anymore, can I?" Ryo murmured as he closed his eyes, exhaling glumly before drawing his other leg up and to his chest, resting his right arm across his knees as he leaned back on the gray wall.

"_You didn't give up before. Why start now?" _

"What's left to hang on to?"

"_You know the truth. You can do something about it."_

"Yeah, right. Even if I had all my magic back, I'm still just one person. It took the combined efforts of hundreds, _thousands _of my people and Springs know how many humans to bring those two _things _down, and they didn't even finish the job! What could _I _possibly do?"

"_You could learn. You have a great source of knowledge a few minutes walk away. Besides, you aren't alone." _

"I'm the last person they should be around right now. I attract no end of trouble, I spent literally all the time I've known them lying to their faces and _they know it, _and then there was my little _outburst _earlier. Even if they _wanted _to be around, it's better if they aren't. For their own good."

"_If you can't even convince yourself of that, how do you think you're going to convince them?"_

"I'll leave."

"_Like they'd let you do that if you even tried." _

"I'm a hazard to their health."

"_Even if that were true, do you think they'd care?" _

"They should."

"_There's a difference between 'should' and 'would'. Perhaps you should leave, but in the end, would you? Could you really bring yourself to abandon them here? Should you stop caring, and even if you should, would you?" _

Ryo hated that voice in his head. That damned voice that had him cornered at every turn, even if it was all in his own head. You never could argue with yourself after all. Not really. No matter how hard you tried.

And that all left him back at the same place he'd started at; what was he supposed to do now?

He knew the truth about his people, his powers were seemingly on the mend and his friends new everything. He now knew the origins behind the monsters they'd fought all this time and he had a basic grasp of what was happening with this so-called 'Dread King'. What did he do with all of that? The answer was obvious. It had been staring him in the face for a while. Setting aside the numerous reasons why Ryo should, there was also more than one element of necessity to it. Ryo needed to put an end to this Dread King.

Ryo knew that the Dread King was hunting him and Veris for their magic. That much had been confirmed by their encounter with Leiptr and Ryo's own previous experience with the Dread King's servants. They also had a way to detect their magic, at least within a certain proximity. He was undoubtedly the bigger draw. Not only was his magic stronger, its elemental rarity would make it all the more enticing.

So, what should he do? Should he go forth on a solitary quest to seek out this Dread King and slay him in the name of penance for his people's misdeeds? Should he simply go on the run and attempt to lure the King's servants away from his friends? Should he seek to uncover as much of his people's lost knowledge as he can? The first and last would probably go well together. Someone who was seemingly in command of a horde of monsters derived from Anguish was obviously no pushover. He'd need all the help and power he could muster.

He'd need all the help he could muster.

"For… I literally cannot find a way to keep them out of this…" Ryo muttered to himself before he finally decided he'd had enough and needed to go on another walk. He peered out of his hiding place and looked around. He could see the flickering of a campfire not too far off. Far enough away that no one would hear him jumping down from his perch, but not so far away that he couldn't reach them in a few minutes.

How was he supposed to face them after this? _All of this?_ After the lies he'd told, the danger he'd drawn them into, the harm he'd outright caused not a few hours ago. How did he go back to them?

"_They'll forgive you. You know that. Why won't you forgive yourself?"_

"Do I deserve it? After everything?"

"_You've made mistakes. So has everyone. You've been obsessing over the monumental failures of your ancestors before you even learned what the specific nature of those failures were. What makes this so different? What makes your failures so special, especially in the face of those you learned of here?"_

Ryo couldn't answer.

"_So, what are you going to do about it?" _

Again, Ryo couldn't answer. He knew he should. The argument he'd been having with himself all pointed to one conclusion that he'd been desperately trying to avoid. That he would continue on with Veris, Garren and Barkos, wherever it might lead. It wasn't until now that he started to realize why he was so afraid of this. He'd failed them so many times already, in many different ways. He didn't want to do that again. They deserved better than that. They'd deserved better than that for a long time.

"_So, will you learn from your mistakes or not? Like it or not, you four are all each other has. You have knowledge they need, and you can't defeat the Dread King without aid. He won't stop chasing you or Veris, and the others are even less likely to abandon Veris than they are you."_

Ryo hated his own mind. It was impossible to argue with.

"Maybe I'm just going crazy after all this time. Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised by that." Ryo muttered as he slowly walked down the street, idly kicking at pebbles.

"_What is keeping you away from them?" _

"Oh, come on, I just got done with that…" Ryo muttered as he slammed his hand against his head.

"_What's really keeping you away? You know of your doubts, but something else has kept you away, even from the beginning."_

Ryo snarled angrily as he stalked down an alleyway.

"Oh, I don't know? Maybe it was the fact that I _lost everything?! _I lost my powers, I lost my sword, _I lost my DAMN WINGS! _Maybe I didn't want to 'rebuild' or 'move forward' after that!" Ryo ranted angrily. He hated the voice in his head! He hated all of this! He hated himself!

"_It wasn't pain or loss that kept you at arms distance. You know that. What _really _kept you away?"_

"I WAS AFRAID, OKAY!? THERE! I SAID IT! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!"

There was silence as Ryo just stood still, his fists were clenched and he was glaring at the ground, chest heaving in a mixture of anger, sadness and fear. He simply stood there, waiting for the voice continue. But it didn't. It was silent save for Ryo's breathing, which was slowly returning to normal. He just didn't have it anymore.

"I was afraid, okay? I… I'm still afraid…" He repeated. However, nothing came. There was no voice, no lecturing, no argument. Just silence.

"Someone say something…" Ryo murmured. But there was nothing. Complete and utter silence. And Ryo hated it. He hated the oppressive silence.

"You got what you wanted. I went and said it. Don't you have something else to say?" Ryo asked again, even though, deep down, he knew he wasn't going to get a response. Why would he? What else was there left to say?

He was afraid. He'd been afraid for well over two years. Afraid of it all happening again. He couldn't let it happen again.

"What do I do? I can't let it happen again… I can't lose everything again…" Ryo asked, hoping by some miracle he'd hear _something, anything… _But as it was before, there was nothing. He was alone with his thoughts, once more.

Then all of sudden, the silence was broken be shouting and a horribly familiar shriek, followed immediately by a deafening roar. Ryo's blood ran cold as the many possibilities of what could be happening ran through his mind.

"No no no no NO!" He shouted as he whirled around and start sprinting towards the cacophonic noise, yanking his sword from his back as dark wisps began to rise from his body as he ran desperately towards the sounds of battle. Dark energy began to slowly bleed out of Ryo's hand and into the sword, causing it to turn black, with the edge turning purple. Dark energy began to trail behind the weapon as Ryo began picking up speed before he leapt into the air, jumping from wall to wall before he reached the rooftops and began leaping across them. He could see jets of flame and arrows flying. He could hear Veris, Garren and Barkos shouting as they fought off their attacker, and the brief bursts of red energy were all Ryo needed to know exactly who the attacker was. Besides, he could see one of them already. It was the Wrath Golem again.

Without thinking, Ryo leapt into the air as dark energy began to gather around him, wrapping him in an ethereal dark aura, particularly around the blade of his sword. Arcs of energy began to travel along the blade as he reached the peak of his jump. Looking down, he could see the Veris, Garren and Barkos were backed into a corner. In addition to the Golem, there was a sizable contingent of imps, several hayans and even a few manticores mixed in.

They weren't going to hold against those numbers. Every other time they'd faced a horde this bad, they'd had backup or had some predetermined strategy that allowed them to claim victory. Not this time, though. Now they were boxed in, unprepared and losing ground fast.

By now, gravity had taken hold and Ryo was plummeting back towards the ground. He angled his sword downward and began channeling as much power into it as he could before he landed, driving his sword into the ground and causing several columns of dark energy to erupt around him that destroyed everyone one of the Wrath monsters. When the columns faded, Ryo turned his gaze from the stone beneath his feet to the remaining monsters, particularly the Golem with a wild snarl on his face. His eyes flashed as he pried his sword from the ground and held it in front of him, pointing it at the monsters.

"Get. Away. From them." He hissed before he flourished the blade and sank into a battle stance. His blade was held high behind him while his left arm was outstretched, bent slightly towards the ground. His dark aura surged around him before it settled. His body was now clad in a purple light that was framed by chaotic clouds of dark vapor.

"What…"

Ryo wasn't sure whose question it was and at the moment he didn't care. At the moment, all that mattered was destroying Wrath's horde before they could so much as breath on Veris, Garren or Barkos.

With a flash of his blade and eyes, Ryo shot forward like an arrow from a bow to rend Wrath's horde asunder.

* * *

**And that's where we're ending it for today! Yeah, I thought the resolution was gonna be shorter, but apparently I can't win on that count. This felt like a more satisfying place to end it.**

**Creativity: Just wait until you tell them that you're nixing the KH staple of world travelling, at least for now.**

**Author: Urgh…**

**Yeah, that's something that came to me while I was writing this chapter. I'll go into more detail about it later, but the short version is that I can't fit it in real good right now, and looking back on my previous season, the world travel sections were easily the weakest part of the story, at least to me. And if I'm not happy with it as the writer, I don't know how you the readers could enjoy it that much. **

**Creativity: Like the boss said, we'll go more in-depth with chatter on the above stuff in chapter 25. **

**Author: Well, hopefully we'll be able to explain more in detail for why we're nixing the world-travel aspect of Ryo's story. **

**In the meantime, we're gonna call it here. Thanks for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Hello everyone, and welcome to chapter 25 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! We're back at it again, with about 1K words stored away for the next chapter, but for now, it's time to catch up with Sora!**

**Creativity: Ooh, boy I'm excited for this one!**

**Author: I'm just glad I've got a chapter that's going to be much less stressful than my usual fare. I can just sit back, relax, and create an awesome fight scene and expand on the world beyond Ryo's perspective.**

**But before we do that, or have a quick pre-chapter conversation, let's address the user reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: I can always count on you to review. As for the voice in his head... that'll get addressed later. A very long later (Hello English) but later all the same. And no, he's not flying yet. He'll get there eventually, but no flappy boi yet. **

**And that's the reviews answered!**

**Creativity: But before we get into the chapter, didn't we have some housekeeping stuff to take care of?**

**Author: Oh, right!**

**So, before we go any further, I'm thinking about making a few changes to how I release these chapters. Namely, abandoning the 'season' model and will focus on releasing it based on 'mini' arcs. So, for instance, for as long as it takes me to get team protagonist out of that underground city. Originally, I was going to write out a minimum of half the season before I started publishing again, so I could take a short break and break the season in half. **

**I'm not sure which one I should go with, since they both have advantages. If I stuck to the seasonal release, I'll have a bunch of chapters ready to go and you guys get consistent uploads for five to six weeks, but It'll be longer stretches between seasons. Whereas if I stuck to this 'theme' oriented release schedule, I would be releasing chapter sets with less time in between them, but my uploads would be a little more inconsistent.**

**If I could get some feedback on that, I'd really appreciate it.**

**Creativity: Remember, feedback makes a story better! Now, here's the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Author: Thank you, Creativity! And now, it's time for us to begin! **_**Ahem…**_

**We now proudly present chapter 25 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

Things had not gone according to plan.

Sora knew that this fight was going to be unusual, but he didn't think they'd be on the back foot this bad. But, on the back foot they were, and it looked to only get worse from here.

"Watch out!"

Sora yelped as he leapt to the side to avoid a stream of stone spikes that erupted where he'd just been standing. They retreated not soon after, but Sora knew that the follow up of an energy blast salvo was coming. Sora turned to face their foe, who had just dropped to its knees and had crossed its arms in front of its chest. The Cruciatus Darkside let out a low, echoing wail as it unleashed four blasts of dark energy from the stone embedded in its normally hollow chest. The blasts were also wrapped in dark yellow lightning that promised immeasurable pain, should they make contact. However, while Sora had dodged the last couple of salvos, mostly out of fear that he'd get a repeat experience with the Torrasque, but he couldn't help but wonder…

"Archive! Get ready with that Purge spell in case this doesn't work!" Sora shouted to Archive before he stopped and braced himself, keyblade at the ready.

"Wait, what? What are you doing?!" Archive shouted back before he unleashed one of those dark chain lightning attacks again. Sora ignored him as he focused on the incoming blasts. With a flourish of his blade and a heavy slash, the blasts were on their way back where they came from; straight into the stone heart within the Darkside's chest. The Darkside let out a groaning noise as one of its arms was raised to the stone protrusion.

"Now's our chance!" Sora shouted before he unleashed a pair of Fire spells and began rushing towards the Darkside. Archive held out his arms to either side as spheres of dark energy, each a foot in radius materialized around his hands. A storm of dark bolts erupted from the spheres, all homing in on the Cruciatus Darkside. Sora leapt up and ran along the Darkside's arm, taking care to avoid the Agony spines that had grown on its body. Finally, he used Kingdom Key to vault off of one of the Agony spines towards the Darkside's head and let loose with a wild, whirling slash! The Darkside groaned in response and Sora kicked off its face back to the ground. However, while he'd most certainly got a reaction, he wasn't exactly sure what kind of damage he'd done, if any. The Darkside's beady yellow eyes focused in on Sora, who could feel its steely gaze fixated on him.

"Uh… I think I might have made it mad…" Sora mumbled a little too loudly before the Darkside swung its palm down at him to flatten him like a mosquito. Sora leapt to safety before whirling around to give the hand a good few smacks with his keyblade before he flipped away.

"I don't think whatever we're doing is working!" Sora called to Archive, who leapt out of the way as the Cruciatus Darkside brought its fist down like a hammer where Archive had just been standing.

"Nothing is unbeatable. It must have some point of weakness…" Archive muttered before he warped a short distance away and firing a pair of twin beams at the Darkside, both of which seemed to do little more than agitate it. Sora leapt back out of range of a swipe and unleashed a three fire spells. One of them struck the Darkside's shoulder, another its face, and the final hit the stone heart embedded in its chest. The Darkside let out a groan as it stumbled back before it retaliated by slamming its fist into the ground, sending a wave of Agony spines shooting up from the ground towards Sora! Sora managed to dodge the attack and felt a grin creeping across his face.

"Well, that was quick! I found that weakness!" Sora called to Archive before aiming his keyblade at the stone heart. Archive responded by unleashing his chain lightning attack upon the stone heart, getting even more of a reaction out of the monster.

"Destroy the heart! If destroy the heart, the Darkside will likely retreat on its own!" Archive called out before he leapt from his perch and fired a pair of dark spheres at the Darkside's heart! Unfortunately, the Darkside seemed to have caught on to what they were trying to do and was now covering its exposed weak point. Sora tried a pair of fire spells, but those didn't make the Darkside budge.

"We need to get it to move its hand!" Sora called out before he yelped as the Darkside did just that, only for a salvo of energy bolts to erupt from the stone heart! Sora reflected the bolts back, but the Darkside was already covering its weak point once more. The blasts broke harmlessly upon its arm. Sora gritted his teeth as he tried to think of a way to strike at the weak point of the giant Heartless. With its arms in the way, its attacks would be hampered. However, the window to attack was brief at best, since the Darkside's giant, shadowy mitts were large enough to cover the heart with only one, leaving the second free for swiping at them. However, that still left it off balance while one arm was busy with guarding the stone heart. Not that it mattered if they still couldn't _hit _it.

"We gotta find some way to hit this thing, or we're gonna be heading in one direction! _Rock bottom!" _Sora cried before he did a one-handed cartwheel to avoid another wave of Agony spines before following up with another fire spell. Unfortunately, the flames did about as much as the blasts that Sora had reflected earlier.

"It's not going to move its hand. We'll need to find a way to move it ourselves or find some other way to attack the heart!" Archive assessed before he launched twin spheres of dark energy at the Darkside in an attempt to draw its attention away from Sora. Archive's attempt was a success, but now he was faced with an angry Darkside that was now charging up what looked like an even more powerful version of its chest blast attack, only this one had a lot more of that dark yellow energy in the mix.

As it turned out, this change in color wasn't just for show as the Darkside uncrossed its arms from its chest and unleashed a massive yellow and black beam from its chest! Archive's eyes widened in his bandaged skull before he crossed his arms in front of himself and conjured up a dark barrier to protect himself! The energy beam struck the barrier and began to break around it, but Sora could tell that Archive was struggling against it. Sora took aim at the source of the beam and fired off a salvo of fire spells, though they didn't do anything. They didn't even get the Darkside's attention.

Sora gritted his teeth in frustration as he tried to think of a way to get Archive out of there before his barrier broke. The Darkside didn't appear to be losing any steam with this new blast, meaning that Archive was running on limited and rapidly dwindling time before he couldn't maintain the shield anymore, and that could lead nowhere good.

"Well, when in doubt, attack from behind!" Sora exclaimed before he began to run around the Darkside and felt a surge of elation, followed by immense frustration directed at himself. The heart shaped cavity in a Darkside's chest went all the way through the body, so _of course _the stone heart was visible from behind!

"Here's a keyblade in the back, ugly!" Sora shouted before he hurled himself into the air and drove Kingdom Key forward, impaling the giant Heartless in the back of the stone heart. The Darkside immediately ceased firing the beam and let out what could be interpreted as a wail or groan of pain. With Darksides, it was hard to tell. All that mattered was that it hurt. Archive took advantage of this brief respite to teleport a short distance away to recover before he saw what Sora was doing. The Darkside, slow and lumbering as it was, couldn't shake Sora away as he kept rushing in and delivering a flurry of blows to the stone heart before he retreated. Seeing that the Darkside was now almost comically distracted, Archive began to gather dark energy around himself before it coalesced into two large spheres around his hands. He brought them together in front of himself before he braced himself and shouted out two words.

"_**DARK ULTIMA!"**_

A colossal beam of black and purple energy erupted from Archive's hands that slammed into the stone heart, immediately causing the Darkside to let out another groan/wail. However, there was something different about it this time. There was an element of panic.

Sora noticed what Archive was doing and smirked. He knew, as if by instinct, that they'd just won. He rushed forward and reared Kingdom Key back one last time before he stabbed it into the stone heart. Immediately, it began to crack on both sides before it burst in a terrific explosion of yellow and black energy! Sora was thrown backwards, landing on his rear and rolling a few times before he came to a stop on his back, groaning a bit from the impact. The Darkside let out one last eerie bellow before it collapsed to the ground. The Agony spines fizzled and popped off its body before crumbling to ash, drifting away on a non-existent breeze. Just like that, the Darkside had returned to the form that Sora had always been familiar with. The inky black skin, heart shaped gap in the torso, no cracks in its 'skin'. However, unlike the other Darksides that Sora had defeated, this one wasn't fading away. Then suddenly, it began to stir.

Sora yelped and leapt back, Kingdom Key raised and at the ready. However, the Darkside payed him no mind as it slowly pushed itself off the ground and back onto its feet before it began to look around. Sora wasn't sure how, but he could tell that the Darkside was experiencing something that Sora had never seen in a Heartless before; the Darkside was confused.

Archive suddenly appeared not to far away and raised his hand. A pulse of purple energy began to emanate from Archive's hand that seemed to get the Darkside's attention. There was a few moments longer of the Darkside staring at Archive before the Sora saw the familiar signs of a portal opening up beneath the Darkside. And just like that, the Darkside began to sink into the ground before it completely vanished from sight and the portal closed.

"Okay… What the heck was that?!" Sora exclaimed as he dismissed Kingdom Key.

"We purged the Agony _parasite _from the Darkside. I was unsure if it would survive the process, but I have no doubts that the Darkside would have preferred death to a fate in the thrall of the Agony." Archive replied.

"Okay, great. But why exactly did the Darkside, one of the most powerful pureblood Heartless, just _leave _and not try to _kill us?!_" Sora shouted, waving his arms in the air as he gestured towards the spot where the Darkside had just vanished from.

"It was the Agony heart that brought the Darkside here. With it gone, it had not reason to remain here and I merely told it to return to the Dark Realm." Archive explained. Now Sora was even more confused.

"Wait, wait, wait! You can _talk _to Heartless?! How can you _talk to Heartless?!" _Sora exclaimed, freaking out even more now. Archive didn't seem to get why Sora was freaked out though, given how he wasn't really reacting to Sora's more… animated behaviour upon learning this revelation.

"The Heartless use a dialect similar to the Shades, though it is noticeably more primitive. Also, just because I can speak to them, doesn't mean that the Heartless are obliged to listen. The Darkside could have turned on us and made an attempt on our lives it had felt so inclined." Archive clarified, though that didn't do much to help Sora. However, after a few minutes of taking deep breaths and confusion on Archive's part as he watched Sora trying to calm down, Sora had chilled out enough to decide that it was probably better to not think about this insanity and instead focus on something else.

That something else wasn't coming to him at the moment, so he decided instead to backtrack a few steps and try to learn more about the pre-heart destruction Darkside.

"So, how do you suppose that Darkside ended up like… well, _that_?" Sora asked Archive, who just shook his head.

"I'm not sure. The Heartless and the Agony have been warring in the Realm of Darkness for ages upon ages, well before the world was torn asunder. If this was indeed possible, which it shouldn't be, it should have happened a long time ago." Archive replied, visible still a bit shaken by the mere existence of the Cruciatus Darkside.

"Wait, you said that the Darkside we just fought shouldn't be possible. What does that mean?" Sora questioned. Archive huffed in discomfort.

"The Heartless are largely creatures that operate on instinct, with that instinct being bound around a 'prime directive'; that directive being to protect their home of the Realm of Darkness. That's why they target hearts in the Realm of Light and the Keyblade in particular, as they view that light as a threat to their home. However, they also protect the vast majority of the Realm of Darkness from being overtaken by the Agony, so naturally the two factions are almost always battling each other. However, if the Agony beginning to adapt, to learn how to somehow possess the Heartless, then the situation is far more dire than I could have imagined. If they take over the Realm of Darkness, then the Realm of Light will surely fall as well." Archive explained gravely. Sora felt a small sinking feeling in his gut before he felt a well of determination.

"Well then, we better keep going. I need to get back to Yen Sid's tower, and we need to unlock all those obelisks to do that. Besides, once we get them unlocked, you and the shades can leave, right? You could go down to the Realm of Darkness to help!" Sora declared. Archive glanced over at Sora and stared at him for a few moments before he nodded.

"Yes. Yes, that is probably the best course of action. Let's press on. The next shackle is nearby." Archive agreed before he began walking away in the direction of obelisk. Sora jogged a bit to catch up before drawing up along side him as they continued on their journey through this dark world, one step and one shackle at a time.

* * *

**And that's where we're gonna end this chapter for today! Ah, such a nice, short and relaxing chapter to write! **

**Creativity: It is a bit of a relief to have something relatively stress-free to knock together in between our bulkier chapters. **

**Author: Oh yeah. I needed that stress-relief.**

**So, I don't have much else to say today since I'm real tired right now. However, hopefully I'll have more stuff out for you guys that can hopefully help distract you all from the horrors of the world right now. So, stay safe, stay healthy and I wish you all the best in that regard.**

**Thank you all for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time! **


	26. Chapter 26

**Good day, beautiful readers! Welcome all on this fine Saturday to chapter 26 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! **

**Creativity: And what are we doing today, boss?**

**Author: Why, I'm glad you asked, my dear friend! We're **_**FINALLY **_**bringing an end the time spent in the cave city and moving on to the **_**fun **_**side of the story. **

**Yes, we're finally bringing all of this to an end and getting the journey proper underway, and we're all the happier for it! I **_**seriously **_**did not expect the confessions to take four chapters with a couple of Sora chapters to make sure we don't get sick of the city even sooner. However, with this chapter, we **_**will **_**get to the end of this mini arc and on our way to the fun part of the story!**

**However, before we get to that, let's take a look at last chapter's reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: Well, it's nice to know I gave you something to look forward to! Seeing a review pop up for this story after an upload is always a highlight to my day.**

**Yeah, I knew I was gonna do the 'attack from behind', but I also didn't want to make it the obvious way to go, since Sora has _never _flanked a Darkside in the series, save possibly the one in the beginning of KH III. As for the monster boss thing, I think you're confused. Agony was defeated long ago, while Wrath and Anguish continued their rampage. They were thought to have been defeated, but that's obviously not the case. As for where Agony is right now, well... You'll see. Also, speaking of Aqua, I'm actually working on a mini-series that will run four or five chapters that details some of her adventures in the Dark Realm post 0.2 events. Now, regarding Archive's connection to Ryo, there is definitely a connection. I've made that very apparent from day one. As for what connection he has, that's something still left to mystery.**

**And that's all of the reviews! Now then, when last we left Ryo, Veris, Garren and Barkos, they were just about to face down a horde of Wrath's beasts and have a rematch with the Golem from Hollow Bastion. How will this thrilling battle conclude? **

**Creativity: Sorry to interrupt, but we need to provide the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Author: Right. Saturday.**

**Well, sorry about that interjection. Now then, let us begin the chapter proper! Allow us to proudly present chapter 26 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"_WAHOO! WHO'S NUMBER ONE?!" Tempest shouted while he whooped in delight, leaping in the air and pumping his fist._

"_Would you stop that?! It's not exactly good form to brag, you know!" Lieth hissed at Tempest, who had the grace to look sheepish, even if he hadn't managed wipe off the grin that threatened to break his face in half. To be fair, the rest of the group of six were all sporting similar smiles._

"_I can't believe we all made it!" Phoenix breathed in a hushed tone as they made their way towards the terrace they loved to visit._

"_And on top of that, Shiori, Tempest and you managed to go and win your section of the tournament!" Ryo added, feeling nothing but pride for his friends. _

"_Oh, come on, you totally would have had that if Treyr hadn't gotten that cheap shot in with that blast! You should totally have won that!" Phoenix lamented but Ryo just shrugged. _

"_I earned my way into the Sanctum. That's what I wanted out of this. Honestly, he probably won because he was more motivated than me. Plus, his swordsmanship is no joke." Ryo half-heartedly argued back. _

"_And yours is better! Trust me, having fought you both, if he hadn't gotten that cheap shot it, you would have _tanned _him!" Phoenix continued on. Ryo rolled his eyes._

"_And trust _me, _I don't care about the bragging rights. All that matters is that I'm in; _We're _in! The Sanctum is open to us!" Ryo stated with unbridled excitement and triumph in his voice that proved to be rather infectious. _

"_All the knowledge of the Sanctum…" Shiori murmured as they reached the Terrace._

"_Right at our fingertips" Terrek concluded. It was true. Ryo could hardly believe it. All the training, sparring sessions, blood, sweat and tears had finally paid off. And yet, Ryo could scarcely believe it. The whole tournament and his placement in it had an air of un-reality to it. He half expected to find out it was all just a wishful dream any moment now. And yet, he didn't stir awake. _

"_You know, for a long while I thought that getting to this point would mean I made it. I was at the end." Shiori suddenly said as she took a seat on the stone bench._

"_But…" Leith prompted._

"_Let me guess, this isn't the end at all. It's just the beginning." Ryo guessed. Shiori shot him a look._

"_Really?" Shiori asked, looking mildly incensed that Ryo had stolen her thunder, but Ryo just threw her a rueful grin._

"_Something tells me you weren't alone in that." He replied as Phoenix gave him a light punch in the shoulder._

"_Still didn't have to go and step on my moment." Shiori muttered, though her annoyance was more for show. Instead, she simply turned her gaze back to the setting sun, enjoying this moment among friends. _

_For after this day, things would begin to change forever…_

* * *

Veris was staring sullenly into the fire she'd lit some time ago. They'd slept through the night (or at least, what they thought was the night) and when they woke up, Veris had tried to go out looking for Ryo again. However, the search had been ultimately fruitless, and she returned and had been sulking a bit since her return.

The fire was low, with only a few tongues of flame remaining. Veris half-heartedly stirred the embers and ash, watching the occasional flickering of a new flame starting, only to have it die in a matter of minutes. Eventually, she added a few more twigs from their supply and sent a tiny puff of flame from her palm to reignite the woodpile.

Garren and Barkos hadn't left the campsite since they woke up. They'd been keeping themselves occupied with doing inventory of provisions, munny, things like that. They'd also been doing maintenance on their equipment, though it was mostly Barkos doing so, since the weapons they'd taken from the _tsubasa no aru _tomb apparently didn't need to be sharpened, and Garren's enchanted armor didn't need any special maintenance. The only piece of equipment that Barkos really needed to keep an eye on was his bow, and his downright religious care of the weapon meant that he realistically didn't have much to do when it came maintenance.

Mainly they were just trying to keep busy without heading too far away from the camp. They'd rationalized it as wanting to keep near the camp's signal fire to keep it lit, and also just in case Ryo came back. They weren't lying, but it wasn't the whole truth either. The unsaid truth was that they didn't know what to do regarding the entire situation. After everything that Ryo had gotten… all that… stuff off his chest, they weren't sure where to go with it all. They'd suspected that Ryo had been involved in _something _before he'd arrived here. Barkos' initial suspicion had been that Ryo had been involved in a cult of some kind, which surprisingly hadn't been that far off.

However, now that they knew the truth; that Ryo wasn't human, that he wielded rare and incredibly powerful magic, and that wasn't even talking about what could be charitably referred to as 'baggage'.

Meanwhile, Veris was lost on her own world as she poked and prodded at the fire with a stick. Memories from Woodfell flitted about in her mind as she recalled better times; when the four of them had felt more like proper friends.

"Hey…"

Garren and Barkos turned to Veris, who was still looking into the fire, idly stirring it.

"Do you guys remember that first winter?" Veris asked quietly. Garren and Barkos glanced in between each other.

"You mean the one where Ryo nailed me upside the head with a snowball so hard that I fell into a snow pile?" Barkos asked.

"Oh yeah, and then he ended up tripping when he was running away from us and got a face full of snow!" Garren exclaimed, chuckling a little bit at the memory.

"Yeah… Then there was an aurora one night, remember? Heading to that glade, lighting a bonfire and lying in the snow while watching the lights dancing in the night sky…" Veris recalled wistfully. As it turned out, that had been the first _proper _winter that Ryo had ever seen. She certainly remembered the first time he looked outside after a blizzard, only to be shocked by the seemingly endless sea of white before him. He confessed that he'd seen snow before, but never in quantities like this. A small smile crept across Veris face as she remembered the many discoveries of winter that Ryo made that season.

"Hey, you guys hear that?" Barkos suddenly asked. Garren and Veris both strained their ears but couldn't really hear anything. Then they heard what sounded like some stones falling.

"Probably just some rocks coming loose." Garren replied. Barkos shook his head.

"No, I thought I heard a voice. Couldn't make it out, but it sounded angry." Barkos muttered as he slowly nocked an arrow and dropped to a crouch as he drew the bowstring back a bit. Then they heard a clattering sound again, much closer this time, accompanied by a loud _crackle._

Now all three of them were on edge and had their weapons drawn. Barkos slowly crept forward and peered around the corner of the small natural wall they'd used for their campsite before he swore viciously and quickly backpedalled.

"There's a summoning stone!" He hissed to them as he started looking for a pathway to use for escape.

"How?! Where did it come from?!" Veris gasped as she readied her short sword. Garren hefted his axe and braced.

"We need to find Ryo! He has no idea those things are out there!" Garren muttered as he steeled himself for a fight. The others nodded in agreement and started to make a run for it, only for their escape to be cut off by three manticores. Suddenly, a small swarm of imps emerged from the darkness, followed by hayans and more manticores. And just like that, they were boxed in. But that wasn't the worst of it. No, the worst came when the ground began to shake in time with a distinct _thoom… thoom… thoom…_

From out of the shadows emerged a familiar and terrifying sight. It was a Golem, nearly identical to the one they'd fought in the catacombs beneath Radiant Garden, which they'd only beaten because Ryo had managed to close the gateway, depowering it.

And then Barkos noticed one more detail that made things even worse. Contained within the Golem's chest cavity was the summoning stone he'd seen earlier, which was going to make it many times harder to destroy.

"Look out, here they come!" Barkos called out as a group of hayans suddenly rushed forward, followed not long afterwards by a pack of imps. Barkos let loose an arrow that took out a hayan while Garren brought his axe down on the head of an imp. The moment the head was split Veris rushed forward and unleashed two Fira spells before yanking her short sword from her belt and joined Garren on the front lines, cutting down as many of Wrath's horde as the pair of them could while Barkos was picking off the hayans that tried to flank around Garren and Veris to strike at them from behind. Garren let out a yell as he blocked a manticore's attack with his armored arm before lashing out with his axe before he lunged forward and kicked away an imp before he delivered a horizontal swipe that took out three more imps at once. Moments later, a fireball soared over his head and struck a hayan that had been gearing up to charge him, followed immediately after by three more fireballs that struck a trio of imps, blasting them into oblivion. Veris then whirled around and yelped as she slashed at an imp that had been in mid-pounce! It's claws disappearing into dust just before they could scratch her. She then lunged forward and delivered a pair of crude slashes to an imp before launching a Fire spell at a hayan that was sneaking up on Garren.

However, no matter how many of Wrath's horde they cut down, the weren't making a dent in their numbers. In fact, it seemed like there were even more of them than when the battle started. Veris jumped backwards to avoid a manticore's strike before launching another Fira spell, destroying the monster. Shortly afterwards though, she fell to one knee as she felt a brief headrush.

"You're overdoing it with your magic!" Barkos yelled before he put an arrow through a hayan before he cursed as he realized he was running low on arrows. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to scavenge any of them, since they were currently all behind enemy lines. Veris fell back and nervously tightened her grip on her short sword before she pulled her old knife from her belt to hold in her offhand. Garren was now backed up along with them, still doing his best to keep the horde back. However, despite all their best efforts, it was obvious that they were cornered.

"How are we going to get out of this?!" Garren asked desperately as he cleaved a manticore in two.

"I can maybe manage a decent sized explosion to take a bunch of them out, but I'd be out of commission afterwards!" Veris suggested, though no one was eager to jump on that one.

"That's not a good idea in here! You could bring the mountain down on top of us!" Barkos immediately replied, shooting down the idea as he tossed his bow aside and yanked his own short sword from his belt and stabbed a manticore clean between the eyes.

"We're running out of room!" Garren managed to yell over the hissing and shrieking of the horde, which had slowed its advanced to a crawl; slowly stalking forward and eying the three of them with an unnerving look in their eyes. They were trapped and beaten, and the monsters knew it. They were taking their time with them, rubbing their victory in the faces of the three. Garren gritted his teeth and hefted his axe for the next attack, Veris summoned what magic power she had left into a fireball that she clutched tightly. Barkos adjusted the grip on his sword, holding it in both hands and knuckles turning white as drops of sweat began to bead on his forehead.

Then, all of a sudden, something dropped to the ground into the midst of the slowly approaching horde! Towering pillars of black and purple energy erupted from the ground, decimating the monsters and leaving them with much more room to breathe. Standing in the middle of the dark energy was a figure steeped in the shadowy energy, a familiar blade in their hand, blade jabbed into the ground.

"Ryo…" Veris breathed. Barkos' mouth was gaping in shock. Garren went from looking surprised to grinning like a maniac as Ryo slowly rose to his full height and pried his sword out of the ground. The three of them stared at the back of their friends head as he pointed his dark blade at the monsters.

"Get. Away. From them." Ryo hissed before he flourished the blade and sank into a battle stance. His blade was held high behind him while his left arm was outstretched, bent slightly towards the ground. His dark aura surged around him before it settled. His body was now clad in a purple light that was framed by chaotic clouds of dark vapor.

"What…" Barkos started to say before Ryo suddenly bolted forward, his blade flashing as his first slash cleaved through an easy seven assorted monsters before he began to swing is blade in a seemingly chaotic manner as he rushed through their ranks, only for lingering purple energy to suddenly mimic a slashing blade behind him, utterly eviscerating the monsters within the reach of Ryo's blade.

"Holy…" Barkos muttered, dumbfounded. He'd seen Ryo like this when he'd fought that monster in Atlantis, but that had only been one monster. Seeing him tear his way through this horde like it was wet paper was quite the sight to behold.

Ryo let out a shout as he leapt into the air and slammed his blade into the ground, sending out a wave of dark energy that cut down yet another swath of the horde before he turned his attention to the Golem, which had very quickly taken notice of the newcomer that was now making mince meat of its soldiers. The Golem let out a groaning roar as it raised its mighty limb and swung it down at Ryo. In response, Ryo's body dissolved into black mist surrounding a shimmering purple energy sphere that quickly darted out of the way of the Golem's limb before it transformed back into Ryo. He then delivering a one-handed upward swing that carved a gash through the floor as a purple crescent of energy surged through the air from the blade. The crescent struck the Golem's arm, carving a long gash across it that began to leak crimson energy and causing the Golem to let out a groan of surprise before it turned its attention to Ryo, who was already on the move again, sprinting towards the Golem, slashing his way through several of the Golem's minions and delivering a hard slash to its ankle before he leapt into the air and reared back his open hand, dark energy gathering it before he thrust is arm forward!

From his palm erupted an orb of darkness that struck the Golem's back and detonated in spectacular fashion. There was evidence of damage, but it appeared to be merely superficial. The Golem let out a frustrated roar before it lifted its massive foot, crimson energy gathering around its rocky limb before it stomped on the ground, sending a massive wave of crimson power rushing out from the foot! Ryo leapt over the wave and rushed in again, leaping into the air and slashing through the Golem's leg once more before he whirled around, gripping the blade with both hands as he sent another crescent of dark energy towards the Golem that carved its way through any of Wrath's horde that was foolish enough to not get out of the way. The crescent was aimed at the creature's chest, specifically at the summoning stone, though it ultimately didn't find its mark as the Golem covered the stone with both its arms. Ryo snarled angrily as he raised his blade and began to charge again. However, the Golem was already preparing its next move. The summoning stone in its chest began to glow brighter and brighter before it suddenly spat out roughly a dozen hayans that all immediately began to converge on Ryo, along with whatever monsters remained alive from Ryo's rampage.

Meanwhile Veris, Garren and Barkos were watching as their friend darted about, attacking the Golem viciously as he cut down any of the monster's minions that tried to intervene.

"We gotta help him." Veris muttered as she moved to join the fray, only for Barkos to grab her shoulder.

"Woah wait a minute. Since when does he need our help? Do you _see him _out there? What part of that says that he needs help? Is it that he's gone untouchable so far? Or that he's shredded his way through three quarters of that thing's forces in a matter of _seconds?"_ Barkos argued, only for Veris to brush his hand off and look back to the fight.

"Look, I don't care how much more magic power he has than me, there's no way he can sustain that that… form or boost or whatever it is for very long. If he runs out of magic before he brings down the Golem and he's just as worn out as I am when I overdo it with my magic, he is going to _die. _I don't know about you, but I'm not going to take that chance." Veris shot back before she turned to head back to battle.

"Wait!" Barkos called to her.

"I'm not going to stay out of…" Veris began to shout as she turned around, only to quickly reach up to catch something that Barkos had tossed at her. It was a High Ether.

"You'll need all the magic you can muster if you're going back in there." Barkos told her as he walked over to his discarded bow and drew one of his remaining arrows from its quiver. Veris nodded at him and downed the high ether before she turned back to the battle and rushed in, cutting down the Golem's forces so that Ryo could focus his efforts on bringing down the Golem.

"Remember, conserve your magic! We might need it for the Golem!" Garren advised as he cleaved through a small group of imps. Veris nodded as she cut down an imp before she flinched as she heard a familiar whistling noise pass close to her head. A moment later a manticore fell to the ground and dissolved, leaving behind only an arrow.

"Nice shot!" She called out before she spun around and stabbed a hayan before swiping the blade through a manticore that hadn't been paying attention. Sparing a glance, she could see Ryo was busy trying to damage the summoning stone in the Golem's chest, though he just couldn't seem to get through to it. The Golem had long since realized what Ryo was up to and was constantly keeping at least one limb at the ready to defend the stone. Meanwhile, it was also busy belching out whatever troops it could muster, though the increased frequency was leading to smaller and smaller groups of monsters, leading Veris to assume that the stone could be overtaxed. Of course, that didn't really mean anything so long as they were still trapped in here with the Golem.

"Barkos, you have any ideas?!" Veris called out as she cut down another imp. Barkos had traded bow for short sword again and was busy cutting down a manticore.

"We need to take out the stone if we're going to survive this, but the Golem is guarding it too much for us to get through to it! We need to break its guard and take out the stone before it can recover and counter us!" Barkos quickly assessed as he started trying to figure out how to bring down the Golem.

"To break its guard properly we need to disable its arms, but to do that is going to require a lot of power. Of all of us, Ryo has the best shot of disabling its limbs, but he hasn't had any success with that so far…" Barkos continued to mutter as he stabbed a manticore in the side.

"I might have something that could bring down those arms!" Veris told him as she cut a hayan in half that had been swooping down at her.

"Could you be more specific?!" Barkos requested as he leapt out of the way of an imp's claws before lunging forward with a stab.

"I got a spell that should do the trick if I can hit the Golem with it! I'll only be able to do it once though, so we gotta make it count! Also, it'll take some time to charge, so I need you to thin out the horde a little so I can charge this up!" Veris called back to Barkos.

"Why do I feel like I'm going to regret this… Alright, you heard the lady! Let's clear these things out!" Barkos called out to Garren and Ryo, who didn't say a word and started cutting down the Golem's forces with new intensity. In the meantime, Veris extended her arm out in front of her, palm facing towards the Golem before she grabbed her wrist with the other hand. A ball of fire materialized in her palm and began to grow, blazing stronger and stronger before it began to compress in on itself. Small orbits of fire began to form around it as she concentrated, sweat beginning to bead her forehead as she poured more and more magic into the attack.

Ryo, despite being occupied with cutting down any of Wrath's horde within reach of his blade, could sense the immense effusion of magic coming from Veris, all gathering into a singe spell. The amount of power concentrated into a single attack was incredible, but also concerning. He knew that Veris was capable of a couple of Firaga attacks, possibly a Firaza if she really pushed herself, but this was going beyond that. Last he checked, Veris physically didn't have enough magical power to power a spell this power! Where had all this power come from?!

However, he didn't have an opportunity to figure out where it was coming from. The Golem seemed to be figuring out what Veris was trying to do, and was now lumbering towards her, rearing back one of its limbs to strike! Eyes wide, Ryo turned and rocketed towards the Golem as he reared back his blade. Dark energy began to wrap around the blade, which began to trail an etheric purple energy! With a bellowing war cry, Ryo swung his blade forward and slashed at the Golem's limb! There was an explosion of dark energy that sent the Golem reeling back with a massive glowing purple gash on its arm.

"IT'S READY!" Veris shouted.

"GET DOWN!" Barkos shouted as Ryo dropped to the ground. With the path clear, Veris' pupils locked onto the summoning stone embedded in the Golem's chest with a wild look within her eyes.

"MEGAFLARE!" Veris screamed as she unleashed the raging inferno from her palm. It rocketed towards the summoning stone and the Golem recognized the threat and raised both its arms to defend the summoning stone. The Megaflare spell struck the arms of the Golem and the results were something that not even Veris had anticipated.

_**KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

The explosion from the Megaflare was so strong that everyone was sent flying backwards (sans Ryo, who'd jabbed his sword into the ground to anchor himself). However, that wasn't even the half of what happened. The force of the blast was so powerful that the arm that Ryo had wounded while protecting Veris had been blown clean off of the Golem's body and the other arm was incredibly cracked and damaged, likely to break if the Golem tried to strike anything. Ryo recognized the opportunity and yanked his sword from the ground and shot through the air towards the summoning stone, sword clutched in both hands as he let out a howl of intent. The Golem desperately raised its remaining limb to protect the stone, but it wasn't nearly enough. Between the massive damage to its limb and the amount of energy that Ryo had poured into the blade, Ryo was able to plow his way straight through the limb and swung the blade down like a hammer on the summoning stone!

The stone was crumbled under the might of the blade and the effect was instantaneous. There was an explosion of red and black energy that sent Ryo flying out of the cavity in the Golem's chest and sent skidding across the floor. Somewhere in between the explosion and his collision with the ground, he'd dropped out of whatever magic state he'd been in and appeared to have been knocked unconscious. He wasn't the only one. Veris had collapsed almost immediately after she'd unleashed the Megaflare attack. Garren had dragged her to safety and Barkos was in the midst of doing the same for Ryo, and it was a good thing as the Golem began to shudder and shake before there was a loud _THOOM _and it burst, large and small fragments of ash-colored stone erupting from the Golem and began to crash to the ground around them! If Garren and Barkos hadn't moved their unconscious companions out of the way, it was quite possible that they would have been crushed by the creature's remains.

It was silent after that. The dust slowly began to settle as Garren and Barkos tried to figure out how to revive their friends, only for them to suddenly lurch awake before they simultaneously groaned and put a hand to their heads.

"Oh, sweet _HELL, _what is wrong with me?" Veris moaned as she continued to massage her forehead.

"Best guess is acute mana disorder, onset by mana taxation. Oh Springs, I haven't felt this terrible since I tried to shadow dash from home all the way to the sparring hall when I was six." Ryo groaned as he slowly managed to sit up.

"Ugh… Is this what a hangover feels like? Also, what's the non-textbook translation of that?" Veris asked, her tone communicating the immense discomfort she was in.

"We both overdid it with our magic and now we've gotta ride out the consequences… Which can last between twenty four to forty eight hours… Give me my sword. I'm going to put myself out of my misery." Ryo replied before he started weakly pawing at the ground for the weapon in question.

"Okay, note to self; keep sharp objects away from them until this passes." Garren muttered as he set about doing just that.

"Can't you guys just use an ether and get your magic back?" Barkos asked as he managed to get Ryo on his feet, supporting him as he half-dragged his magically hungover friend out of the area where they'd fought the Golem.

"Not if you want to see us vomit blue. We just gotta ride this out until our magic has replenished naturally. Besides, it's only our magic that is affected for the twenty four hours or so. Our heads should be roughly back to normal in about twelve hours or so…" Ryo muttered as he was laid down on a bedroll.

"I'm not gonna make it… I think I'm gonna be sick…" Veris groaned out, a hand on her stomach as Garren carried her to where Barkos was setting up their new camp.

"I've heard that can happen. Don't try to ingest anything for a while." Ryo suggested as he shut his eyes and tried his best to ignore the accursed throbbing in his skull.

"Well, we'll keep watch until you guys can actually function. Try to get some sleep in the meantime." Barkos assured them. All he got were a couple of miserable groans in response.

"That's about the response I expected." Barkos muttered as a rueful grin danced at his lips.

"If you joke about this mental hell again, I swear on the Six Springs that I will murder you when the colors go away…" Ryo groaned out, shakily raising a hand up to point at Barkos, only to get about halfway before his arm dropped pathetically to the ground.

"I wonder if they'll even remember this when they come around." Garren mused as he set about getting a fire going. They'd been a little bit spoiled by Veris' fire magic, but Garren still managed. As he and Barkos idly stirred the embers and watched the flickering tongues of flame dance in the darkness, they were eventually greeted by a pair of snores that echoed throughout their haphazard camp. This managed to drag a few snickers, building to hushed chuckles before they managed to reign in their amusement. They didn't want to wake their ailing friends, after all. Then, after a few minutes, Barkos got to his feet.

"I'm going to go scavenge as many arrows as I can. You think you can hold down the fort? I shouldn't be long." Barkos asked. Garren nodded.

"Just be quick. I don't want to think we have nothing to worry about after the Golem, but you never know..." Garren replied.

"And just when our big guns are out of commission…" Barkos muttered as he hurried off to retrieve his arrows. Garren turned his gaze to an unconscious Ryo and frowned.

"Not sure how many more long conversations our group can handle, but I think we're due for one more. We better make it a good one." Garren murmured before he adjusted his sitting position to be more comfortable and leaning his axe against one arm, idly thumbing the flat of the blade as he waited for Barkos to return.

"I think I know what you intend to do next. If I do know, then we all need to go with you. Doesn't matter what you say, even if we could get in the way, we deserve to come with." Garren muttered to himself as he suddenly gripped the handle of his axe hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.

"We have to avenge Woodfell."

* * *

**You know, I thought I'd have thought that I'd have gotten the big resolution I was going for into this chapter, but apparently not! So, I'm going to either run a Sora chapter next, or just go straight to the conclusion. Probably the latter. I don't want to go through too many interludes with Sora. **

**Creativity: Perhaps we could do interludes with other characters?**

**Author: Hmm… That's not a bad idea. If anyone has any suggestions for what characters and/or moments for me to document as interludes, let me know! Though, please, keep your suggestions relevant to the story.**

**Anyway, like I said, we've got at least one more chapter to write. Unfortunately, we're a bit swamped with college right now, so writing will have to take a bit of a back seat for a bit. **

**Well, there isn't much we can do about that aside from getting all that work out of the way. So, until then, we're going to be real busy. **

**Well, that's about it from us for now! Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Good day to you all my beautiful readers, and a happy Tuesday to you all! **

**Creativity: Alright, this is it! We're **_**FINALLY **_**getting out of that damn cave! We're all sick of it at this point!**

**Author: Yes, yes, all stuff we've said before. However, we really mean it this time. We can confidently say that we're getting out of the underground city. After this, we'll probably do a couple of Sora chapters as a palate cleanser, though they'll likely take longer to write. I'm wrapping up another college term and I've got exams to do, projects to finish, so on and so forth. **

**But that's enough about life outside of writing! Let's start off how we usually start off; answering reviews:**

**CeleneTheAngel: Yeah, I like doing the fight scenes. I can tune out for them a little bit and just focus on making something awesome. As for the magical hangover thing, I wanted to have there be consequences for pushing magic too far, as well as mine a bit of comedy out of it. Things were too serious for a stretch there. Also, the evil monsters aren't _drawn _to magic, but the Dread Kings forces are actively hunting for it. Important distinction.**

**And that's the reviews out of the way! Now then, as of this writing, we're one day out from publishing chapter 24 of Before: KH, which gives me a week and a bit if we wanna stay on schedule. Which we do. We really wanna get all the chapters related to getting Ryo and Co. out of that cave in one go. Again, I don't really have an estimate on when that'll be done since I got a lot of other shit to do, but I'm reasonably confident that I'll have this done in time. Well, we'll find out later, won't we?**

**But once again, enough about that! It's time… to provide the Discord password:**

**Creativity: And now… wait, am I allowed to do this?**

**Author: Knock yourself out!**

**Creativity: Thanks! **_**Ahem… **_**We now proudly present chapter 27 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

"I thought you said the headache was supposed to be gone by now…"

"That was just a general guess. It varies from case to case. Besides, it's gotten better, hasn't it?"

"Easy for you to say. Your headache cleared up four hours ago."

Garren smirked as he smothered his snickers while he finished tearing down their temporary camp. He knew he shouldn't be getting enjoyment out a companion's discomfort, but he couldn't help it when it anymore. Veris was still dealing with the linger effects of putting too much magic into a single spell, while Ryo was only left with the inability to use his magic. The latter had spent every waking moment since with the former complaining about the pain in her skull and Ryo's lack thereof. Additionally, Ryo seemed to be getting some measure of amusement from this situation as well, based on the intermittent teasing he employed every now and again in response to Veris' ongoing complaining, which she usually responded to with a groan and tiredly asking if he knew any remedies for the headache, to which Ryo would respond with yet another variation on 'no'.

"I'm not the one who decided jumping straight to Megaflare when they could barely handle a couple Firaga casts was a good idea. Didn't any of the books that Queen Arryn gave you detail the consequences of pushing your magic too far?" Ryo asked, only to interrupt when Veris started to respond.

"I already know the answer to that. They _are_ in there, you _did _read them, but you _ignored _them and went straight for something that was out of your depth." Ryo reprimanded.

"You're welcome for saving all of our lives." Veris grumbled in response, though it didn't matter since Ryo was now in lecture mode. Garren was intrigued by this new side of Ryo. Given how closed off he'd been regarding his past and the strain on the group's relationship after his magical abilities had been revealed, they hadn't seen Ryo really dig into the nitty gritty of magic, especially when it came to educating a fellow adept.

"And we're all thankful that you were able to hit the Golem with the giant magical explosion that could have brought the ceiling down on us. It's not like there's a mage out there that hasn't or won't push themselves to far and go through this suffering, but you did, and you do, so suck it up you big baby." Ryo replied firmly. At this point, Garren _did _break out in giggles at the look of shock and betrayal on Veris' face, which only became _more _shocked and betrayed when she heard Garren's laughter. However, it didn't stop there as now it was Ryo's turn to start laughing, the feedback loop of giggles only becoming worse by the moment.

"Hate you… Hate you both…" Veris grumbled out as she went to finish packing her bedroll, though this only made their mirthful giggles worse, made even worse when she started grumbling about Ryo being just as dumb as her since he already knew of the effects of pushing magic way to far. However, they did eventually subside, and the group had finished packing up. They started on their way back up to the exit from this ancient city before Ryo took one last look back. Despite her discomfort, Veris did notice a look in his eye.

"Are you sure you want to leave this place so soon? It's a connection to your people, and who knows what sort of cultural relics or information you could find there. Maybe there's stuff there that even your home forgot." Veris asked him. Ryo was silent for a moment before he shook his head.

"There's nothing of value to us here at the moment. Also, Wrath undoubtedly knows we've been there and will send more of its horde after us, should we linger, and Anguish would surely follow close behind." Ryo replied before he turned and continued up the pathway.

"Besides, it's cold and dead in there. I'd rather come back here if it ever comes back to life; The way it's meant to be…" Ryo added as he ascended the staircase. The others quickly followed along behind him as they ascended the staircase and began the long trek through the corridor to the chamber that contained the Ledger. As they passed through, Barkos took one last look at the wall, examining the many runes that were carved into the wall.

"Is it just me, or are the runes different?" Barkos asked. Ryo didn't even glance back.

"Probably. The runes likely change every time someone enters or leaves the city, with the names of those entering being placed somewhere on the wall. I can't imagine how intricate the enchantment to create this chamber must be to do so." Ryo informed him. Barkos' eyes lit up at that little sliver of knowledge before he recalled when they first entered this city.

"That reminds me, actually. You never explained what the riddle meant by the 'state your name' portion of the riddle. Is that rune actually translate to 'Ryo'?" Barkos asked, only for Ryo to shake his head.

"It's tradition among my people that we all receive two names. The first one is our common address, given to strangers, acquaintances, so on and so forth. The other one is more personal, told to others _very_ sparingly. We don't even learn what our names are until we can summon the rune, just like you saw me do when we arrived there." Ryo explained. Veris frowned.

"Wait, but if it's so secret and intimate like you said, why would they make the doorway rely on you divulging that special name to open?" She asked. Ryo shrugged.

"I can't say for sure, but I've got a few ideas. Again, based on what I've seen, there's a very distinct divide between my people's culture between the time they dwelled here and the present. Perhaps the names weren't considered as important or special back then. I remember talking to an aquamancer at the Sanctum who was studying history, culture and tradition, and she told me that there were a number of theories surrounding the hidden name. One claimed it was a descriptor of your eventual fate, in one form or another, while another hypothesized that it could predict what kind of person you would be. I'm not sure how much I buy into the any of that stuff though." Ryo shared as they were finally greeted with sunshine. There was much squinting as their eyes adjusted to the noonday light. As they all stepped out onto the flat rock where they had first entered the hidden citadel. Veris closed her eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling contentedly.

"I didn't even realize how stale the air was down there until now." Veris breathed as she took in the fresh air and whispering breeze that drifted through the mountains. Soon enough, everyone was taking a moment to appreciate the lovely day it was, made all the more lovely by the time they'd spent underground. However, they knew that the moment couldn't last, and so they began their descent from the city entrance and began their trek out of the mountains. Ryo had expected there to be more chatter, asking him more about his culture or the city they had just departed, or even just more about him since they knew who and what he was now, but he was surprised with silence. It wasn't an awkward, oppressive silence like they'd been travelling under after the whole Atlantis debacle, but it still made Ryo a bit uncomfortable. Still, that could just be chalked up to the aforementioned uncomfortable silence that they'd been in for so long.

Still, it wasn't all that bad. They could hear the wind rustling through the trees and over the rocks, they could hear the birds singing, the occasional splash of water from melted snow running off the mountain, even the occasional animal moving through the brush. It was amazing what you came to miss when you took an extended stay underground. There hadn't been any life down there, which had made the city seem even more cold and dead, like an empty and abandoned tomb.

Eventually they made it out of the mountains and found the main road again, leaving them at a branch.

"Should we go back to the archeologists? Maybe give them a hint as to where to look?" Barkos asked, only for Ryo to shake his head.

"No. Without me they wouldn't be able to open the door to the city, and I don't intend to let them run around those ruins. Regardless of their intentions, I don't trust them with a place sacred to my people. Besides, I don't want anyone else to see it in that sorry state." Ryo replied firmly before he turned to continue down the road.

"It's probably best if that tomb is left forgotten for now…" He concluded. The others didn't say anything in response, instead exchanging a few looks and following along behind him as the silence once again crept in. Once again, it wasn't necessarily a _bad _silence, but it didn't feel like a particularly good one either.

Veris glanced around at her friends and slowly drew up alongside Ryo, who was staring down at the road a little bit, lost in thought. Veris frowned. After everything they'd been through these last few days, she couldn't imagine how emotionally drained he was. Sure, they'd had some time to recover (though she still had that irritating headache), but that was still a lot of baggage that Ryo had unloaded after literal _years, _and that wasn't even counting what wandering the decrepit old ruins of his people's lost civilization had done to him. Seeing it now when he probably had at least a few inklings of what it was _supposed _to be, well, she imagined it would be akin to if she (or Garren or Barkos) had returned to Woodfell, only to find every building reduced to a burnt, blackened scar on the ground. That is in all likelihood what had happened to Woodfell, but the fact that she hadn't seen it yet and possibly never would made it _feel _different, giving her some hope that perhaps Woodfell wasn't in such a sorry state or had somehow recovered after their escape.

Veris shook her head. She wasn't ready to think about Woodfell's fate. There would be nothing there for her, at least for now. Turning her attention back to Ryo, she noticed him staring at his hand. Veris watched as purple sparks of dark magic dancing across his palm, increasing in intensity before a dark aura surrounded his entire hand. After a few moments, he closed his hand into a fist, dispelling the aura before he let his arm drop back to his side.

"Are you doing okay?" Veris asked. Ryo looked up at her and gave a small smile.

"I'm doing a fair bit better, that's for sure. I'm not at 100%, and I've got to face the reality that I might not ever be, but I'm getting there." Ryo replied. Veris frowned a little bit.

"I meant regarding… well, _everything. _I mean, after everything you've been through; losing your home, your powers, everything that's built up to now, and then we find the abandoned shell of one of your people's cities? I just want to make sure you're handling all of it well." Veris clarified. Ryo glanced down at the ground.

"I mean… _sigh… _It is a lot. Even if I've only been here for two years, it feels like I've been here longer, and not in a good way. Not necessarily a bad way either, but you know what I mean. Still, I _am _getting better. The fact that my magic is coming back to me is proof of that." Ryo answered, though Veris still wasn't satisfied. Garren and Barkos had been listening quietly to the whole conversation and decided to chime in.

"So… what are you going to do?" Garren asked. Ryo glanced back at him, a look of confusion on his face.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked. Garren shrugged.

"Well, now that your secret is out, and you've learned what you wanted to learn from that library… thing?" He clarified. Ryo frowned a little as he glanced down at the road.

"Honestly… I don't know. I know what I _want _to do, but I don't see how I can do it, with or without help." Ryo answered. Barkos frowned.

"You want to go after the Anguish and the Dread King, don't you…" Barkos guessed. Ryo nodded grimly.

"And Wrath too, though I don't even know where to start with that one. The Dread King is at least a known entity with forces that I could track, or just get the information from someone else. No one knows where Wrath could be, or even that Wrath exists. And all that aside, I don't see how I could beat them. Wrath and Anguish took the combined forces of human and _tsubasa no aru _to defeat, and even then they couldn't finish the job. I'm just one _tsubasa no aru _that doesn't have access to well over half his powers. I can't even _fly _right now, which will make going up against those things even harder." Ryo muttered. It was clear that he still frustrated by his power loss, regardless of how much of his former strength had returned to him.

"Hey, you don't think that we're just going to let you hunt down those monsters by yourself, do you? We owe the Dread King some payback of our own!" Garren interjected, but Ryo shook his head.

"We're still facing the same problem; We lack the capability to finish them off. Even if we were to be backed by Radiant Garden and have their best soldiers and spellcasters by our side when facing down the Dread King, I don't see us being able to put down Anguish if it is indeed the true identity of the Dread King. We need to face facts; if the combined arms and powers of humanity and the _tsubasa no aru _couldn't bring down Wrath and Anguish, our chances might as well be comparable to trusting a snowflake to survive in a volcano." Ryo reminded them and quickly killed the mood.

"What about if you had access to all your power?" Veris asked. Ryo frowned as he crossed his arms and stared down at the ground yet again.

"Still likely wouldn't stand a chance. Based on what little I've seen, my people developed to become more powerful since we retreated to our new world, but again, given the sheer numbers that were being thrown at Wrath in that vision I had, I can't say that I could beat either of them." Ryo thought aloud as idly kicked at a loose pebble on the road.

"If the chances are so slim, then why do you want to even try? Just because you somehow feel responsible for those things existing? Listen, it wasn't _you _that made the call to make those things _or _make the decision to run away! You don't have to go on a suicide mission to assuage your conscience!" Veris exclaimed, but Ryo held up his hands and waved her down.

"Relax. I'm not going to just run off and take on something that would eviscerate me in minutes to ease my own sense of responsibility. If I'm going to go after Wrath and Anguish, I intend to do it right and make sure they're properly dead. I'm just not sure how to do that. If I could learn how they stopped Wrath and Anguish before, maybe I could figure out if they maybe perhaps did it incorrectly or study the methods used to create them for something I can exploit to destroy them." Ryo replied before pausing.

"I sense a 'but' coming…" Barkos muttered. Ryo shot a look at Barkos before he kept going.

"The problem is that I can only think of one place where that information _might _be, and we don't currently possess the means of getting there." Ryo concluded. Garren stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"I'm assuming that you need to be able to fly to get there." He guessed. Ryo nodded.

"If there's going to be any information on how to stop Wrath and Anguish, it would be housed in _Arcem Magnam, _my people's grand citadel that happens to be perched on the peak of the highest mountain in the lands. Setting aside how imbecilically dangerous it would be for us to even _attempt _climbing up there, you three would probably all pass out from how thin the air gets up there. Hell, _I _might pass out since I don't know how far the impact on my powers goes. Normally I can breathe perfectly fine at an elevation like that, but now? I have no idea and I don't want to find out the hard way." Ryo elaborated. The group frowned.

"Well, at least we won't be able to say it wasn't interesting." Barkos joked, though no one really laughed.

"So… what do we do then? Just give up and live our lives on the run from the Dread King and Wrath?" Veris asked. Ryo frowned.

"Right now, I don't see any other option until we can figure out how to take out the Dread King. To take out the enemy, we need to get into _Arcem Magnam _and to do that, we need to find a way to survive the journey there. And of course, that all assumes that the Dread King or Wrath haven't already been there to level the place and erase any chance that we could ever destroy them." Ryo muttered as the others' frowns deepened.

"Well, we can't just do nothing and wait for Wrath or the Dread King to kill us all. We know that the Dread King collecting magic for… something. Whatever, we don't need to know what he needs it for. All we know is that he wants it an that he takes it by force. There's two of us that have magic, and you have exceptionally rare magic to boot, so we're never going to see the end of him unless he's killed, and who knows what Wrath wants with us. It probably just wants us and everything dead." Veris argued. Ryo stroked his chin thoughtfully as he considered the predicament.

"Well, even if we don't know how to reach _Arcem Magnam, _perhaps someone else knows. Those archeologists said there's been a recent uptake in encouragement from the House to research my people, so it's possible we could find at least some hints about where to look if we were to ask the archeologists, but I'd say a better idea is to go straight to the source." Ryo thought aloud. The others thought about it for a few moments before Barkos started to grin like an idiot.

"Are you saying that we're going to Oxos?" He asked, his voice a bare whisper and shaking with excitement.

"Well, it's known for being home to the largest known collection of knowledge, scholars, inventors and the like. It's certainly possible that we could find something or someone there that could help. Again though, this is just a guess. It's equally possible that we won't find anything there. Also, we have to keep in mind that the Dread King and Wrath will be watching for us, and I don't think it's impossible that the Dread King in particular might have spies situated in major cities to keep an eye out for us. They can sense magic, and with mine being unique to this world, well… You know the rest." Ryo stated, his tone turning dark at the end, and not in his 'new' way. There was a few moments of quiet while everyone considered what Ryo had said.

"Look, I don't want to drag you all on some potentially foolhardy quest that's doomed to fail, so if you all have reservations or other ideas for how to approach this insane thing we're considering doing, now's the time to speak up." Ryo stated firmly. Veris immediately stepped forward.

"After all the insanity that we've already been through, the _last _thing I'm going to do is let you run off on your own, powers or no. We're all in this now." Veris stated even more firmly. Ryo gave her an appreciative look, though he still looked doubtful of their chances.

"We've made it this far and been through plenty of insane stuff before, so why give up now?" Barkos decided as he put a hand on Ryo's shoulder.

"If you want something done right, you do it yourself. That so called 'King' is due for a few words with me and my axe for what he did to Woodfell." Garren promised as he stepped forward resolutely. Ryo looked at all of them and nodded, his face set in determination.

"Alright. Let's go study the art of regicide."

* * *

**And that's where we're gonna end it for now! It's been a bit of a rough couple of days for me, since allergy season has stormed into the house and clubbed me in the kisser with an aluminum baseball bat, but I'll power through!**

**Creativity: This chapter's a little on the shorter side, huh boss?**

**Author: Eh, not really. I mean, kinda? Relatively speaking to the usual Ryo chapters we've done in recently, sure. However, I'd say that doing a shorter chapter here is probably better than trying to deliberately pad it out. **

**So, as you are probably aware, this particular fanfiction archive is currently suffering from what I call 'the adfestation' in reference to YouTube's own 'adpocalypse'. This wasn't mentioned in the opening notes since I'd already started this chapter before that problem had sprung up. However, when I started finding up to SEVEN ads crammed into the spaces between paragraphs of my stories, I got a little bit peeved, to say the least. **

**My initial response to this was to immediately suspend any and all uploads I had planned and monitor the situation to see how it developed. So far, the situation has developed in a… less than satisfactory manner. The fine people at FictionPress have not publicly responded to the people who have brought this situation before them (myself included) and apparently, it's gone on to spread to the FictionPress website (where people can put their original works) has also been subject to the adfestation. This has led me to believe that, contrary to what I thought and wanted to believe, this was not a bug or a glitch, but rather a deliberate choice on the part of the owners. What would have motivated this, I don't know. Greed, desperation, I don't know, and I don't care. There's been no communication, no disclosure, nothing. **

**If you're seeing this, then one of three things have happened. One, I gave up and just resigned myself to the fact that nothing will changed and I'm not leaving either way, since the ads can be blocked, they don't show up on android devices apparently, and they don't happen on the app. Two, The webmasters have stopped the adfestation, regardless of how it started, and I've started publishing normally again. Three, I've moved to a different archive and will be uploading the stories I intend to take with me to that other archive one chapter at a time for the foreseeable future, and this account can be considered to be on an indefinite hiatus. In the event that I choose option three, I will post a list of all the stories I intend to carry over to the next archive, upload a handful of chapters here that I finished in between the transition, and then… we'll see. If the webmasters here get their act together, then you'll see me return. If not, then… well, sorry. I can't say I'll have regretted the choice, but I do regret that I had to leave the people on this site with so many stories unfinished.**

**Creativity: Wow… That's a lot of heavy stuff.**

**Author: I thought it was probably a good idea to get it out there where my head was amidst all this, and how it might affect where I put my writing in future. **

**Well, there really isn't much to be said after all that, so I'll just end this chapter here. Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you on Saturday (hopefully)!**


	28. Chapter 28

**/ IMPORTANT NOTICE! PLEASE READ! /**

**So, you've all probably seen the current 'adfestation' like I have, and while several other chapters I've written for other stories have a detailing (and I've got a bit on my personal page about it), I'd like to take some time to address it here. For those who've been lucky to avoid it so far, during the last week of April, FF dot net has started inserting their typical ads into stories, sandwiching them haphazardly in between paragraphs and generally ruining the reading experience of everyone who is unfortunate enough to have to deal with them. Needless to say, this has me significantly miffed and I decided that while I would not stop writing, I would stop posting for the time being and watch the situation unfold. Thus far, it has been disappointing. There has been no response to the situation at all for nearly three weeks as of this writing (It will probably have been WAY longer by the time this comes out) and I've been informed that the sibling site to this one, FictionPress, has also been suffering an adfestation of its own, leading me to believe that this was a deliberate choice on the part of FictionPress; one that was not communicated to anyone and has gone completely unacknowledged by the people at FictionPress.**

**So, seeing as this is the game that FictionPress has seemingly decided to play, I've thought of three options for myself: One, I give up and just resign myself to the fact that nothing will change and I'm not leaving either way, since the ads can be blocked, they don't show up on android devices apparently, and they don't happen on the app. Two, I don't do anything and wait until the webmasters have stopped the adfestation, regardless of how it started, and I start publishing normally again. Three, I move to a different archive and start uploading the stories I intend to take with me to that other archive one chapter at a time for the foreseeable future, and this account can be considered to be on an indefinite hiatus. In the event that I choose option three, I will post a list of all the stories I intend to carry over to the next archive, upload a handful of chapters here that I finished in between the transition from one site to another, and then… we'll see. If the webmasters here get their act together, then you'll see me return. If not, then… well, sorry. I can't say I'll have regretted the choice.**

**Regardless of what happens, I will be publishing this chapter since it's an important one (see normal notes after digressive rant) and I don't want to have such an important chapter not reach where my readership is.**

**Again, this may wind up being resolved by the time this chapter comes out, and I'll be sure to call out if it has happened, but I also think it's important that people remember that this happened, especially since it has happened before, in March 2019, in which the PR people said it was the fault of a third party ad system. I want to believe that this is what has happened again, but since they have not publicly responded in over two weeks to this problem (and that's two weeks since the earliest recorded sighting of the ads, it could have been around much longer), I'm not entirely convinced that this was an accident. Especially since all the ad placements theoretically mean more ad revenue for them, and more ads to clear means more ad clicks, means more money for them.**

**It's suspicious, is all I'm saying, and I don't like it done at the expense of the work I post on this site.**

* * *

**Post post adfestation edit: So, they cleared it up! Great! No more ads being sandwiched in between paragraphs! THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, I will not be forgetting this, and I strongly encourage you all to not forget it either, especially since this has happened before and I believe will happen again. Remember where you heard it first.**

**Alright, I've gone on long enough. We now return to your scheduled chapter.**

* * *

**Hello Everyone, and welcome to chapter 28 of Before: Kingdom Hearts! **

**Creativity: It's been a while since we sat down to this! Also, how many people do you think are going to read that notice?**

**Author: I hope people will read it. It's labelled "IMPORTANT NOTICE! PLEASE READ!" so I imagine that people will at least glance at it.**

**Anyway, we don't actually have a lot to talk about in the opening notes today, so we're just going to jump straight into the review responses: **

**Is what I would be saying if we had any reviews for chapter 27! Oh well, nothing to be done about that. **

**Now then, last chapter we had the group finally finish clearing the air and figuring out where they go from where they are, literally and figuratively. **

**Creativity: And where are we gonna go with this? **

**Author: Somewhere. For now, we're going to have ourselves a Sora chapter. Nice, relaxing and I get to spend time fleshing out the in-universe history more. **

**So, let's not spend any more time waiting! Here's the Discord password: ****5RRcGwh**

**Creativity: And with that out of the way, it's time for us to proudly present chapter 28 of Before: Kingdom Hearts!**

* * *

It had been quite some time since Sora and Archive had departed from the last Obelisk and made their way back through the Field of the Fallen and beginning their trek towards the next one, and Sora had been unusually quiet during that time. Well, Sora _thought _it had been a while. In this strange world, it was impossible to keep track of time. It certainly _felt _like it had been quite some time, but he was making it a point to not make assumptions about time in this world. The only reliable clock here was Archive, though he wasn't sure his bandaged bodyguard would appreciate being used as a timepiece.

Still, the time was useful as it gave Sora plenty of time to think, especially since it also gave him a break from his seemingly eternal quest to find new things to talk about with Archive, who also seemed to be appreciating the silence. Sora hadn't taken as much time to think about everything that Archive had told him about this world, the Dark Realm, the history of the worlds and this World's place in it all, and Archive's place in it by extension. And by Kingdom Hearts, did Sora have a lot to chew on at this point. Between what Archive had told Sora about this world and how the many connections it had to the past, to lost civilizations and cultures, the history of the Keyblade, the Dark Realm in general and who knows how else, Sora was _really _beginning to miss having Jiminy around to write all of this down for him to read later. Not that he _had _gone back to read Jiminy's journals before, but he did always have that option. Now that Sora thought about it, all of his adventures were rather strange in more than a few ways but having gone through them himself, he had never noticed this before. It wasn't until he'd tried to explain it all to Archive that he realized how insane all of this sounded when spoken aloud.

Still, as he thought about it more, he was seeing more connections between the tidbits of information that Archive had given him so far, as well as the bits and pieces that he'd accumulated himself from this strange world. The first thing Sora had thought about was the big one: the Cruciatus, or Agony as they were more commonly called, apparently. Having thought back on his journey through this world, he remembered three carvings that had been in the center of the massive labyrinth that he'd been challenged in and received the four powers that he had _criminally_ underused so far on this journey, save for the tracking power. The carvings he'd seen had depicted three entities; One of a creature with a face of rage whose wrathful presence had burned those in its presence, one of e being depicted to be in perpetual despair and drowned those around it with its sorrow, and an entity that was twisted and suffering that inflicted greater pain on those around it. It was incredibly obvious that the last of those depictions was a Cruciatus. Perhaps it was even _the _Cruciatus; the greatest and most powerful of all, maybe even the source of them all. In summation, something that Sora dearly hoped that he would never, _ever _have to come face to face with, though that seemed unlikely. He was a keyblade wielder after all, and if these things were a threat to the Worlds at large, something that Archive had explicitly confirmed more than once, then he would be on the front lines to stand against them.

However, that wasn't the only connection that Sora had found between the Cruciatus and this place, though this next one was only a guess on his part. Still, he had an easy way to confirm his suspicions, assuming that Archive didn't clam up when he asked. He'd been pretty accommodating regarding information so far, all things considered. So long as Sora didn't ask a question that hit too close to home, he figured that he'd be fine.

"So, I've been thinking a lot about some of the stuff you've told me; about these Agony monsters and the Dark Realm, and I think I figured something out." Sora began, waiting for Archive to respond.

"Is that so?" Archive replied, not so much as batting a purple eye as he kept striding onward.

"Well, you mentioned that the Shades lived in the Dark Realm before the Heartless, and that the Agony and the Heartless have been fighting each other since before the Keyblade War." Sora continued before pausing, waiting to see Archive's response.

"I did tell you that." Archive agreed simply, sparing a brief glance towards Sora.

"So, I started thinking about where the Shades went. I mean, those two were a lot stronger than a bunch of the Heartless I've fought before. If they're so powerful, how'd the rest of them get wiped out?" Sora continued before Archive interrupted him.

"These Shades were among the upper echelon of their kind and are not a perfect reflection of their species. While they are far more intelligent than the Heartless, that isn't to say they were all stronger than them." Archive reminded Sora, who nodded.

"Well, yeah, but I've seen the power that you and the Shades use. Even if it is Darkness, it's not the same Darkness as the Heartless. It feels more… neutral, older and maybe more powerful." Sora countered before he waited for Archive to respond. When he didn't, Sora took the opportunity to press onward.

"Anyway, I started thinking about how they would have disappeared and the Heartless moved in. I mean, you mentioned the Dark Realm changing and that they wouldn't be able to live in it the way it is now, but you never really explained what that change was… It was the Agony, wasn't it. It appeared and started wiping them out." Sora guessed. Archive was silent for a few moments and Sora started to worry that he'd perhaps finally found that magic question that would see Archive clam up. However, this didn't seem to be the case as Archive drew in a breath and exhaled before beginning to speak.

"I often lament what has become of the Realm of Darkness. It used to be just as wondrous and beautiful as the Realm of Light where you reside; home to life as diverse as what you find in the worlds of light, home to its own cultures and beauty, only for it all to be dashed by the Cruciatus." Archive muttered as his hands clenched into fists.

"They fell into the Dark Realm and spread like a plague, corrupting the very ground they tread on and decimating every _true _denizen of the Realm they came across. As time wore on, their infection forced the survivors to adapt and become something else… Something hardier, more vicious and driven by territorial instinct. All the beauty was lost, the nurturing side of the shadows cast aside for survival. If the Dark Realm is a living thing, then it is a wounded one. The Cruciatus are an infection and the Heartless are the antibodies that fight against it and anything else that could harm their home. And all the while, I am trapped here, unable to do anything during all this, save for offering shelter to those caught in the middle of this whole mess." Archive continued, now in what Sora realized was a rant. Now that Archive was actually getting this stuff out there, Sora felt a surge of sympathy for Archive. He hadn't thought about it that much, what with his focus being on unlocking all the Obelisks and _not getting killed, _but now that he _was _thinking about it, it was beginning to truly strike him just how much Archive must _hate _his lot in life. He was trapped in a world that was occupied seemingly by only himself and perhaps the last two remnants of a dead culture, along with that strange wolf creature that occasionally passed through. He was only able to glean snippets of the vast cosmos beyond this world and was powerless to affect any change in them, to aid the Heartless in beating back a world-consuming threat (Words that tasted _really strange _on Sora's tongue) and the only people that ever arrived on this world were mere moments from death, having been brought here so that they could pass on in peace. When you really sat back and looked at it, Archive's lot in life kinda sucked.

"So… If we were to stop the Cruciatus; go to the Dark Realm and completely wipe them out, what would happen to the Dark Realm? What would happen to the Heartless?" Sora asked hesitantly. Archive huffed as he stared at the ground.

"I couldn't say. Things have been this way for a very long time. It's entirely possible that the damage may simply be done. Even if we were to scour the Dark Realm of all Cruciatus, it will take hundreds, perhaps thousands of years for honest recovery to take shape. However, it would likely stem the tide of Heartless invading the Realm of Light for a time, but it also may turn the Realm of Light into the next target, with the old one being gone. I can't say." Archive explained, sounding pretty tired. Sora pondered this for a bit before he had an idea, dangerous as that could be.

"Well… You and the Shades can talk to Heartless, right? And once all the Obelisks are unlocked, you can leave this world, right? Well, if you were free and the Cruciatus were all destroyed, you could tell the Heartless to just leave us alone, couldn't you?" Sora suggested. Archive huffed.

"Focus on the present, Sora. Many shackles yet remain and you still have a quest ahead of you. Even when that quest is completed, you'll have a long journey before you before one could even _think _of destroying the Cruciatus once and for all." Archive lectured Sora as they kept going. Sora frowned at the reminder, though he did appreciate it. Archive was right, after all. Sora already had Xehanort and his new Organization to deal with; a task that was going to be the furthest thing from 'easy' or 'quick', especially since Sora knew that he'd have to rebuild himself from the ground up along the way.

"I know, but if I can stop the Heartless from invading the Realm of Light, I can't exactly pass up an opportunity like that. I mean, every journey I've gone on has been because of Xehanort and the Heartless, so if I can do anything to stop that then I think I should. I mean, that's the whole point of being a Keyblade Wielder, right? To keep the Worlds safe?" Sora questioned. Archive spared a glance sideways at Sora before he turned his gaze back to the path ahead.

"Is that really the point of being a Keyblade Wielder? To protect the Worlds and keep the light safe?" Archive asked aloud. Sora looked at him funnily.

"Um… Yeah, that's what I've been doing ever since I _got _the keyblade." Sora replied, only for Archive to sigh.

"You misunderstand me, Sora. Indeed, you have done many a great service to the Worlds, and even at personal sacrifice to do so. However, it is extremely foolish to ignore the history of the keyblade, and while there are many who would refrain from calling you bright, you are certainly no fool." Archive replied, ignoring Sora's indignant spluttering as he pressed onward.

"You've undoubtedly heard an abbreviation of the keyblade's history, but it hardly does justice to the tragedy and devastation that the rise of the Keyblade wrought. The first keyblades, fashioned in the image of the One True Key, were meant to unlock Kingdom Hearts under the assumption that it would lead to a paradise of light. However, it quickly became obvious that the inferior copies did not possess something that the One True Key had that was needed to unlock that door. It was after this that new keys began to appear naturally, perhaps in response to this new power that had been unleashed upon the World." Archive began to explain before they turned a corner and began to walk down the bottom of a large black stone crevice.

"However, the people's lust for the light was not abated, and so many keyblade wielders began to use their keyblades to collect light and horde it for themselves, like a dragon to a horde of gold. Some keyblade wielders took notice of this quest and took it up themselves in an attempt to prevent the first faction from hording all the light for themselves, becoming the very thing they worked against in the process. The tribalism continued and soon everyone was stockpiling light to prevent anyone else from having it, and in the absence of the light, _something _must fill the void… or nothing…" Archive continued. Sora was staring at the ground now, a small knot of shame having formed in his stomach and growing larger as Archive continued his little history lesson. It wasn't personal shame that Sora felt, though. It was shame for history of the legacy he and his friends had been entrusted with.

"Eventually the fear, the greed, the mistrust and the anger built to boiling point and spilled over into outright war, and that war rolled over the World and literally _carved it to pieces._ The worlds were eventually rebuilt and what few keyblade wielders survived the conflict vowed to do better. And perhaps in general they have done, but that wasn't exactly a high bar to clear. There was still more infighting; more worlds lost to their negligence and ego. And now, here we all are; with so-called _Keyblade Master _scheming to recreate the Keyblade War, reforge the One True Key, and then use it to unlock Kingdom Hearts. As it was, so it is, such as it will ever be." Archive concluded in a melancholic and defeated tone. However, Sora took a modicum of offence regarding that last statement.

"Hey, I'm not going to make the mistakes as Xehanort!" Sora protested, only for Archive to shake his head.

"But that doesn't mean you can't eventually find yourself going down an ill-advised path. Xehanort arrived on his path because he sought to control what may yet be by controlling the darkness, only to fail. It's a mistake every being in the world will make eventually; to control what will or won't be, though whether or not they will learn from that mistake is completely variable. However, that mistake _always has consequences. Always." _Archive lamented. Sora glanced at Archive as he thought about it more, then realized something.

"Did you make that mistake?" Sora asked after a long silence. Archive just sighed and looked down.

"I've never had the opportunity to attempt to control the trajectory of fate, but I have seen the consequences of such an act _endless times. _And despite all that, I strongly suspect that if given the opportunity, I _would _make that mistake, and without hesitation." Archive confessed. Sora looked down as they kept on their way, mulling Archive's words over. There was no denying that there was truth in what Archive was saying. He'd seen more than his fair share of people brought low by their desire to control what wouldn't be. Heck, he'd even had a direct hand in the downfalls of a good number of those people. Still, he didn't believe that those were evidence that this was _all _that could happen in the end. After all, they'd been stopped, hadn't they?

"But, things have gotten better, right? _We've _all gotten better. I know that much. Besides, if people do make that mistake, then other people can help to fix things. I mean, that's what I've been doing ever since Kingdom Key chose me." Sora pointed out. Archive sighed.

"But what happens when you aren't here anymore, Sora? Not everyone is as capable of doing the right thing like you are. Even when setting out with the best of intentions, a person can still bring the worlds to the brink of destruction." Archive bemoaned. Sora shrugged.

"Well, I guess we just gotta have faith that people can save the Worlds if that does happen." Sora decided. Archive looked up a bit.

"Faith… I'm not sure how much of that I have left." Archive murmured. Sora smiled.

"Aww, I don't believe that. You've got faith in me to unlock all those Obelisks, right?" Sora pointed out as he put his hands behind his head and grinned. Archive made a small noise of amusement as he closed his eyes.

"I suppose I do… Heh… I guess, if I need to place my faith in the hands of one person, I can't imagine anyone I could choose other than you, Sora." Archive decided. Sora grinned a little wider.

"I think you can do better than that! If you really believe it, I betcha that the people out there will surprise you." Sora stated confidently. Archive didn't seem convinced, and Sora had to agree that, based on what history Archive had shared, that history had shown a destructive pattern, but still Sora still had more than enough hope for the worlds. After all, he'd been to so many of them and met the many wonderful people who lived in them. Most of all though, he'd seen the worlds have their share of happy endings. Even if they were ultimately smaller than the events that Archive had supposedly seen play out, they were still there, and they still mattered. Hopefully once Archive was no longer trapped in this world, he'd be able to experience some of those happy endings for himself.

Suddenly, Sora had a new resolve to complete his task in this shadowy world; He had to see to it that Archive got the freedom to _experience _the worlds instead of just watching them from afar. To experience a happy ending for himself.

"Yeah… That's where my heart's gonna lead…" Sora murmured. Archive glanced at him curiously.

"Something to say, Sora?" Archive inquired. Sora just smiled again as he put his hands behind his head.

"Oh, it's nothing." Sora replied. Archive just let out a chuckle as he closed his eyes and shook his head.

"You are many things, Sora. A good liar is not one of them." Archive stated, and although Sora couldn't see it, he knew that Archive was smiling under all those bandages.

"So, how far away is the next Obelisk?" Sora inquired as they continued through the crevice.

"Not long now." Archive replied as they turned another corner and found themselves at their destination. Just ahead of them was situated the Obelisk they'd been working their way towards. As they approached it, Sora summoned Kingdom Key and held it out in front of him. However, before he unlocked it he needed to ask a question.

"Hey, Archive." Sora began. His dark bodyguard turned to look at him.

"Hm?" Archive responded, indicating that Sora could continue.

"When all of the Obelisks are unlocked, you'll be able to leave this world, right?" Sora asked. Archive glanced at Sora and paused before answering.

"When the Obelisks are unlocked, then this world will be free, as will I." Archive answered. Sora was a bit confused by the wording, but he didn't make mention of it. Instead, he turned his gaze back to the keyhole that had appeared on the Obelisk and sent forth the familiar blue beam from Kingdom Key. Shortly afterwards, Sora felt the familiar dizziness take hold as he began to pass out. Sora's last thoughts before he drifted off were curiosity about what he was going to be shown by this particular Obelisk, as well as what he was supposed to learn from them all.

* * *

**And that's where we'll end it for today! I had fun writing Archive this chapter.**

**Creativity: You always have fun writing Archive.**

**Author: I mean, yeah, but I really got to dig into what it's like for him to live in this world, seeing history play out over and over again and how it's worn him down after so long. I mean, he's been there for a **_**very **_**long time after all. He's been there since before the Keyblade was even a thing!**

**So, as you all have hopefully read from my IMPORTANT NOTICE at the beginning, I'm currently waiting for news regarding the adfestation from FictionPress's own mouth, which has been clamped shut ever since this fracas blew up. Don't think that's a coincidence. I'm hoping that it'll all blow over and we'll be able to get back to normal, but regardless of whether it does or not, make no mistake, **_**I will not forget that this happened. **_**I will not forget, I will make sure that this event is **_**branded into the minds of everyone I can inform, **_**and I will certainly be calling FictionPress out on this if it happens again next spring. **

**Creativity: Wow… And with that out of the way, I think it's time to end the chapter!**

**Author: Yeah, you're right. **

**Thank you all for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time! **


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